it • 






'!'.; 1 




Qass 



JlALc 



Mk L-.U. 



I" I ex 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



THE 

NINETEENTH 
CENTURY SERIES 

THE STORY OF HUMAN 

PROGRESS AND THE GREAT 

EVENTS OF THE CENTURY 



•EDITOEL"- 

JUSTIN MaCARTtrr 



W. & RXHAMBERS — LIMITED 

LONDON C* EDINBURGH 

THE BRADLEY-GARRETSON GO.-- LIMITED 

PHILADELPHIA DETROIT BRANTFORD 



^ 





X \ 



-^^-y 



LORD MILNER. 

Photogravure from a photograph Ay Elliott & Fry, 
Lo7idon. 



\ 





THE NINETEENTH 
CENTURY SERIES 



VOLUME VIII 




C 




PROGRESS OF THE 
BRITISH EMPIRE 
IN THE CENTURY 



■BY- 



J. STANLEY LITTLE 

Author of" My Royal Father''' " What is 

Art?''' ''A World Empire,''' ^' South Africa,'^ 

"The United States of Britain,'^ 'M Vision 

of Empire,'''' Etc. 

1903 




W.& R. CHAMBERS-- LIMITED 

LONDON & EIOINBUROH 

THEBRADLEY-d^RRETSON CO.- LIMITED 

PHILADELPHJ/X DETROIT 8R*.NTFORD 



y^^v . ^ 



_n ft 1 1 



LIBRARY of OONGRESS 
Two Copies rteceivea 

APR 19 1905 
Copyrijrni tniry 

cuss a. A\C. Not 
copy 6. 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the Year One Thousand Nine 
Hundred and One, by The Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, in the Office of 
theL ibrarian of Congress, at Washington. 



Entered, according to Act of Parliament of Canada, in the Year One 
Tliousand Nine Hundred and One, by The Bradley-Garretson Co., Limited, 
in the Office of the INIinister of Agriculture. 



AU Rig]it>^ fii'scrved. 



PREFACE. 



I CONFESS that when I undertook to write a book 
on the subject covered by the legend on the title- 
page of this volume, I had only a small and imper- 
fect idea of the magnitude of the task befor© me. Its 
difficulties have been considerably increased by the 
fact that the subdivisions into which it more nat- 
urally and easily fell, were, in almost every case, 
covered by the titles of other volumes of this series. 
Possibly this is an idle complaint, since I freely ad- 
mit that every chapter of this volume, as it has 
developed in my hands, needed the whole space at 
my disposal for its adequate treatment. 

This being so, and the subject, the subjects I 
should say, being so vast and complex, I am con- 
scious that what I have written will be more valu- 
able, if valuable at all, as a stimulus to thought 
than as a definitive pronouncement. I may say at 
once, ardent imperialist though I be, and one who 
has dedicated a very large portion of his time and 
energies to the furtherance of the imperial idea, 
I am no Jingo, l^either shall I be regarded by 
those who read these pages as an optimist. The 

V 



Vi PREFACE. 

progress of tHe British Empire has made for the 
good of humanity, taking a broad view of that 
progress, but it has to be remembered that there is 
a reverse side to the shield, and in the chapters 
to follow, I have not hesitated to turn that side 
toward the light. Upon that I will say no more 
here; but what I will say is, that apart from the 
mere accident of date, which under our decimal 
system of measuring time in decades and centuries 
has an artificial significance, no time could have 
been more appropriate than the present to sum up 
the progress of the British Empire; since it must be 
manifest to the most casual observer, that Great and 
Greater Britain have arrived at a supreme moment 
of their national existence. At the time of writing, 
the issue as between Boer and Briton in South 
Africa is undecided, though there can be no ques- 
tion as to the manner of its decision. But it is not 
to that conflict, serious though it be, that I make 
reference, when I talk of a supreme moment in our 
national life, although it is out of that conflict 
the dangers and trials of the future will, in all 
likelihood, grow. England is about to take the busi- 
ness of colonising Africa seriously in hand. Eu- 
rope is perfectly well aware of our intention, and 
Europe uniformly resents it; because the ever-grow- 
ing power and solidarity of the British Empire is 
an affront to the peoples of the Continent, especially 
to those peoples which cherish aspirations after 
colonial dominion. 



PREFACE. vii 

It is because of this openly-expressed hostility 
that, as it seems to me, we are at the parting of the 
ways; and in estimating the chances of the future, 
we must keep well in our minds the undoubted 
enmity which the whole of Europe entertains to- 
wards us. Our safety lies in the impossibility, as 
we may presume, of any three nations of Europe 
being sufficiently preoccupied with their hatred to 
England, to forget their hatred to each other. In 
the last . century, and in the early part of this, 
Erance was our only serious rival in the field of 
imperial influence. Then, as Sir Robert Giffen 
has recently pointed out, Erance was the foremost 
State of Europe, with a population of twenty-six 
million people, while Great Britain, irrespective of 
Ireland, had only eleven million inhabitants. The 
people of Ireland, instead of being a help, were then 
a drag on the country as a whole. To-day the pop- 
ulation of the British Isles is about equal to that 
of Erance, while outside of these isles there are ten, 
or perhaps twelve million Britons, ready to uphold 
the honour of our flag, and the interests of our race 
wherever the one or the other be assailed. Some 
little time since this statement might have been 
challenged as belonging to the realm of speculative 
rhetoric; but the help given by Australia and 
Canada in the Soudan campaign was almost suffi- 
cient to warrant the boast; while the magnificent 
and practical aid accorded by all the colonies, great 
and small, in the suppression of the Transvaal re- 



Viii PREFACE. 

bellion, not only gives token to the stranger, of the 
actual unity of the Empire, and the determination 
of each of its component parts to uphold it as a 
whole wherever a province may be threatened or 
endangered, but is an earnest to the world that 
should the British Empire be menaced by any foreign 
power or combination of powers, the manhood of 
Greater Britain would come in its battalions to fight 
under, and for the flag which protected the colonies 
in their growing years, and which still protects them. 

This great, this new fact, must be taken into 
consideration when we are counting the risks from 
continental schemes for our destruction. So far 
as France alone is concerned, they would render 
French rivalry a matter of small moment ; even had 
not France shown by every act and every develop- 
ment of her recent history, culminating in the 
pitiable expose at Eennes, that her upper and mid- 
dle classes are paying the penalty of a long course 
of emasculating extravagances, and are the victims 
of hysteria and degeneracy. In fact the French 
are decadents; as a ruling race they no longer exist. 

But in the place of France we have now in Ger- 
many and Kussia two formidable, far more formida- 
ble rivals and possible enemies. Germany and 
Russia are both progressive nations; advancing in 
population, and so far, at all events, as Germany is 
concerned in the quality, man for man, of her people ; 
whereas France is not only declining relatively, but 
actually in population ; she is, and this is even more 



PREFACE. ix 

serious for her, declining in the quality of her 
people. The Germans are a more fecund race than 
the British. From being a chance collection of 
small states always at variance between themselves, 
and with a population of 20,000,000 at the begin- 
ning of the century, Germany has become a mighty 
and united Empire of some 60 millions, nearly one- 
third of which population has had its origin in the 
natural increase of births over deaths during the last 
quarter of a century. 

For the British Empire it is an awkward circum- 
stance that Germany has developed colonial and 
extra-imperial aspirations, which although they have 
not so far enabled her to form successful colonies, 
will, should the present temper of the nation con- 
tinue unchanged, ultimately be realised in greater 
or less degree ; since in patience, perseverance and in 
the willingness and capacity to make any sacrifice 
in order to achieve an end, the Teuton to-day re- 
sembles the Briton of less prosperous times, before 
success had lowered his stamina and lessened his 
staying-power. The enormous sacrifices the Ger- 
mans are about to make in creating a first-class 
navy, show that they do not mean to be handicapped 
in the assertion of what they may conceive to be 
their national destiny, because one arm of their 
service is weak. Still Germany and England have 
always been allies; and seeing that Germans and 
Britons have much in common, that they intermarry 
with such happy results, an Anglo-German alliance 



X PREFACE. 

is perhaps more probable than an 3.nglo-German 
rupture. 

The growing power of Eussia should tend in the 
long run to bring about such an alliance. Despite 
the platitudes of those rose-coloured politicians and 
suborned propagandists who preach of a possible 
entente between Eussia and Britain, the manifest 
intention of Muscovite policy remains what it was 
when it was first formulated by Peter the Great; 
and that purpose and intention include the destruc- 
tion, or in any case subjection, of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. All thinkers who do not think in grooves in 
Great Britain and her colonies, are gradually com- 
ing to see that this is Eussia's absolute and undevi- 
ating purpose. ISTow Germany should know, and 
unquestionably does know, that since Eussia's aim 
is to found a World-Empire which shall embrace 
in the end the whole earth, and to hold it by force, 
the elimination of the British Empire would be 
quickly followed by the absorption of the German 
Empire. Erance knows in her heart of hearts that 
she is going the way of the other Latin races; she 
knows nothing can save her. She joins herself to 
the Eussian Empire in the hope that she will be 
able to wreak her vengeance on the country she 
now hates with more concentrated passion than she 
hates Germany. But why should the German Em- 
pire play into the hands of Eussia? seeing that in 
the event of Britain being conquered, and Erance 
avenged, there would be nothing to save her from 
being herself crushed in turn. 



PREFACE. xi 

I must not, however, travel furtlier into the do- 
main of the future. It seemed to me necessary to 
say so much, because great as is the progress our Em- 
pire has achieved during the century, it is clear, 
or should be clear, to all but those who are wilfully 
blind, that we have not gained this commanding 
position without adding greatly to our vulnerability ; 
and that in order to keep what we have now, we shall 
have to reckon with at least one determined and 
unsleeping foe. What is now happening in Asia, 
shows us where the immediate danger lies. There 
can be no doubt that Russian diplomacy, in other 
words, Russian mendacity, has proved too much for 
us in that continent. It would even appear that the 
bulwark we hoped we had erected against Russian 
advance in the Yang-tse-Kiang is scarcely set up 
to prove itself a bulwark of sand. 'Now the obvious 
purpose of Russia is to absorb China down to the 
very frontiers of India. In brief, Russia aspires, — 
and the purpose is not even concealed — to dominate 
the whole of Asia ; to dominate it by the agency of 
fire and sword. And yet this is the Power which 
at the end of the century has had the cynical effron- 
tery to impose upon the credulity of the nations of 
Europe by inviting them to a Peace Congress, a 
transparent device for gaining time in the prosecu- 
tion of her aggressive designs. This effort to throw 
dust in the eyes of the nations ought not to have 
imposed on the most simple ; but it so far captivated 
sentimentalists, as to be taken seriously by a con- 



xii PREFACE. 

siderable section of the very nation it was chiefly 
designed to gull — the British. 

As touching arbitration as a means whereby in- 
ternational disputes may be settled, obviously the 
principle is a good one, and it would be satisfactory 
to record its progress during the latter part of the 
century, were it not for the unhappy fact that 
Great Britain, in her zeal to uphold thet principle, 
has been made to suffer most severely under its 
practical operation. It is true the record is broken 
by the Venezuela award, which was in some meas- 
ure favourable to Great Britain. Still the British 
Empire has no reason to be in love with this method 
of settling disputes; since the feeling of foreign 
countries toward us is too unanimously hostile to 
permit of impartiality, when they are put in the posi- 
tion of our judges or assessors, being humanly possi- 
ble. At this very moment, the Empire is engaged in 
a sanguinary war, which could not have come about, 
had we not submitted our undoubted rights atDelagoa 
Bay to the arbitrament of a Erenchman — Marshal 
MacMahon. That however is another story^ and 
must be told elsewhere. 

It is a story, nevertheless, which affects the whole 
course of our recent history as an Empire, and 
one which indirectly has been the means of consoli- 
dating the Empire. Eor out of the blackness of this 
unhappy conflict in South Africa, the clear light of 
imperial patriotism has sprung. The Empire has 
yet to be federated politically, but the federation 



PREFACE. xiii 

of hearts within its entire area, always excepting 
the misguided Dutch of South Africa, is already 
accomplished. 

It has come home to the people of the British 
Isles, and to the peoples in three continents sprung 
from these isles, that unity of action and purpose 
is absolutely necessary in the interests of the com- 
ponent parts of the Empire, and those of the Em- 
pire as a whole. The vitalising influence of the 
imperial idea has permeated the system of the whole 
Empire. We see clearly at home, and it is seen 
clearly in every limb of the Empire abroad, that 
if we are to maintain the influence, prestige and 
power we at present enjoy, to say nothing of in- 
creasing them, we must hold firmly together. And 
I venture to think that the British race is coming 
to understand that the responsibilities which have 
devolved upon it, are not merely sedfish responsibil- 
ities, by which I mean responsibilities to the future 
of the British race alone ; but that apart from egoism, 
and an undue and natural preference for our own 
work in the world, that that work as a whole, is a 
work on behalf of that higher humanity which with 
all our faults, vices and limitations we are, as a 
people, endeavouring to evolve. It is possible for 
our enemies and critics to point to our falling away 
from this lofty ideal, to stigmatise our extra-insular 
development as animated by selfish and sordid, 
rather than by humanitarian motives ; and assuredly 
there is much of hypocrisy and guile about many; 
of the pioneers of progress. 



xiv PREFACE. 

A brief experience of City life, as seen from tKe 
inside of certain organisations presumed to exist 
for the spread of imperialistic and national objects, 
objects having for their main purpose the good of 
the British race, will suffice to show the single- 
minded enthusiast that much that is purely selfish 
is mixed up with the actual machinery of many of 
these great movements and agencies of national ex- 
pansion. Still, to acknowledge this, is but to ac- 
knowledge the imperfections of human nature. If 
such a person could be found, a cosmopolitan en- 
tirely free from the bias of race, a man born in a 
desert island of mixed ancestry, and indebted for 
his education to professors of various nationalities, 
who keeping their pupil constantly on the move, 
should take care that he did not stay long enough 
in any one country to become biassed in its favour, 
— if, I say, such a person could be found, is it vanity 
to assume that he would support the conviction 
which the patriotic Englishman cherishes deep down 
in his nature, that the interests of the human family 
collectively, are bound up in the interests of the 
British Empire; that in point of fact it would be 
an incalculable loss to humanity as a whole, if that 
Empire were to be robbed of her commanding posi- 
tion? 

It has taken the British race some twelve cen- 
turies since the first real advance on savagery began, 
to bring the State to its present eminence. As 
an agent making for the advance of civilisation, 



PREFACE. XV 

an agent working for the gradual elimination 
of discord and war and for the foundation of a 
system of universal freedom and justice leading up 
to that perfectibility of which poets dream, a fed- 
eration of mankind speaking a common language 
and governed by a common law, the British Empire 
could scarcely be supplanted by any other aggrega- 
tion of kindred peoples. Thus the extinction of the 
Empire would mean a distinct, and so far as one 
can see, an irreparable, check to the progress of the 
world. If it^ should be argued that in course of 
time, another power would appear, able to carry on 
the work the British Empire has done and is doing, 
it is still impossible to ignore the loss and delay in- 
volved in the transfer of this high mission into other 
hands. Moreover what other hands? 

Is the sum total of Anglo-Saxon achievement, in 
literature, art, science, in the art of government and 
administration to be wiped off the slate of history 
by the imitative Slav or the calculating Teuton ? or 
since we are told that numbers must tell, are we 
to be obliterated by the Mongolian? or as the late 
Mr. Pearson feared, by the sable races of the earth 
— the descendants of Ham ? What is to be, is to 
be; but to be forewarned is to be forearmed; and 
surely since these dangers are so clearly foreseen, 
it behoves us as a race to gird up our loins and pre- 
pare to do battle with them; to meet them indeed 
before they overtake us. It is because, as it seems 
to me, there is no patriotism in burying our heads 



Xvi PREFACE. 

in the sand, refusing to see the dangers and troubles 
which threaten us from without and from within, 
that in writing this volume, I have refused to be 
blinded, or to attempt to blind others, by the spec- 
tacle, the imposing spectacle of progress and achieve- 
ment, the history of this Empire presents to the 
world; especially imposing as regards the last three 
quarters of the expiring century. Again, great as 
that progress has been, how infinitely greater it 
might have been, if the English people instead of 
wasting their energies in futile and meaningless 
party strife, warring to the death for mere shib- 
boleths, — and if the intellectual classes instead of 
frittering away their strength in mental exercises 
leading nowhere — in mere persiflage^ — ^had concen- 
trated themselves upon upholding and developing 
the Empire which fell to them as an asset in return 
for the enormous sacrifices they made during the 
twenty years' war with Erance. Immediately after 
the battle of Waterloo, such a course was impossible 
perhaps, as the people were too listless for great 
and novel enterprises to have any chance of success ; 
but already in 1820 there was ample room and 
opportunity for the extension of the colonial policy 
which resulted in the founding of the Eastern 
Province of Cape Colony. 

It is not easy to forgive the men who controlled 
the destinies of this Empire from that time toward 
the middle of the century, when the administration 
of the colonies was elevated into a separate depart- 



PREFACE. xvii 

ment of State, for their blindness to the real and 
abiding interests of this country in regard to co- 
lonial development. Palmerston, Granville, Derby, 
and above all Gladstone, were men poorly endowed 
with imperial instincts; and they experienced much 
the same difficulties in controlling the development 
of a great colonial Empire, as a small provincial 
trader would have in conducting a large commer- 
cial enterprise. Especially is it to be accounted to 
them for unrighteousness, that they failed to read 
the signs of the times in Africa. Twenty-five, or at 
the most thirty years ago, we might have protected 
ourselves against all risk of being disturbed by rivals 
in the business of Anglicising that continent. The 
shortsightedness of our rulers has immensely added 
to our difficulties; witness the obstacle to the Cape 
to Cairo Kailway, which only a man of Mr. Cecil 
Rhodes's commanding personality and persuasive 
eloquence could have removed. This may be given 
as a sample of innumerable difficulties, all of which 
were quite avoidable had the Foreign and Colonial 
Offices listened in the seventies and eighties to the 
counsel and entreaties of experts. Their opacity 
and indifferemce have resulted in Africa repeating 
the arbitrary subdivisions of territory which have 
proved a fruitful source of dissensions and warfare 
in Europe ; and have left a legacy of discord between 
the nations of Europe concerned in Africa, which 
must bear evil fruit in the future. Again, the mis- 
takes which have culminated in the present lamenta- 



xviii PREFACE. 

ble, thougli inevitable, war in South Africa, are as 
old as the Queen's reign, beginning with the Great 
Trek, going on to the Sand Kiver Convention, and 
the retrocession of the Transvaal, and ending with 
the mischievous Conventions of 1881 and 1884. The 
lack of imagination of the Ministers responsible for 
these successive mistakes, is the less excusable when 
we remember that the United States already afforded 
an object lesson, teaching what might be expected 
to grow out of small beginnings, when the Anglo- 
Saxon peoples once got a firm hold on an undevel- 
oped continent. 

But I must stay my pen. I have said enough, I 
think, to indicate the spirit in which I have ap- 
proached my task, and it now remains only to make 
acknowledgment of certain sources of information 
to which I am indebted for statistics, facts and other 
details necessary to enforce the positions I have 
taken up. In addition to Blue Books, Consular re- 
ports, and the usual books of reference, I have con- 
sulted the Journals of the Imperial Federation 
League, and the Proceedings published annually of 
the Eoyal Colonial Institute, together with numer- 
ous books and pamphlets prepared by such authori- 
ties as Sir Frederick Young, Sir John Colomb, Lord 
Meath, the late Mr. F. P. de Labilliere, and count- 
less specialists besides — ^writers on imperial unity, 
trade and defence. To these I may add the volumes 
on the Victorian era edited by Mr. Humphrey Ward, 
Mr. Justin McCarthy's History of our Times; Mr. 



PREFACE. xix 

Charles Booth's Condition of the Aged Poor; Profes- 
sor Seelej's Expansion of England; Mr Parkin's Im- 
perial Federation; Mr. Eider Haggard's A Farmer s 
Year Book; the late Mr. J. Anthony Fronde's 
Oceana; Sir Charles Dilke's Greater Britain; 
Dickinson's Developments of Parliament; 'Free- 
man^s Greater Greece and Greater Britain ; Acworth' a 
Railways; Mulhall's Dictionary of Statistics; 
Haydn's Dictionary of Dates; Mackenzie's The 
Nineteenth Century; Sir Eawson Kawson's Tariff 
and Trade of the British Empire; and perhaps a 
hundred volumes besides. In any case it would be 
tedious to mention all the books to which I have re- 
ferred, in greater or less degree, in the preparation 
of this volume, though I may say that I have gone 
to these books for facts, and make none of their au- 
thors responsible for the deductions or opinions which 
I have drawn from them, or formed in connection 
with them. 

JAMES STANLEY LITTLE. 

Royal Colonial Institute, 

Northumberland Ave., 

London, W. C. 



This volume was written early in 1900. This will account 
for references in the present tense to events which have now 
bt'come history, particularly to the events in the last months 
of the reign of the late revered Queen. — Editors. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. 

IMPULSES TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 

PAGE 

Birth Pangs.— The Twenty Years' War with France.— Ex- 
cesses of French Revolutionists Disgust England with 
the Cause of Freedom. —Popular Government a Farce.— 
Shelley's Passionate Outcry.— Heavy Taxation.— Crude 
Ideas as to Colonies. —Reform Bill, 1832.— Quickening 
of the Colonies. — Canada, Australia, South Africa. — In- 
tercolonial Federation. — Increased Affection of Colonies 
Consequent upon Local Self -Government. — English Born 
Gamblers.— Colonies Regarded as Sporting Speculations. 
—Pioneers, as a Rule, Born Administrators.— Why the 
Empire has Grown so Erratically.— England in Love 
with the Game of Conquest Rather than the Fruits 
Thereof.— Continental Parasites. — British Partial Un- 
selfishness in Attacking Napoleon. — Indirect Benefits 
Therefrom.— Unconsciousness of our Race in Building 
Empire. — The Germination of the Imperial Idea. — 
Whither it Tends 1 

CHAPTER II. 

GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 

Early Statesmen and Empire.— Cromwell. — Cession of 
America. — Effect on British Colonial Policy. — Renun- 
ciation ut Amiens. — Colonies Not Valued for Them- 
selves. — Colonial Independence Assumed to be Inevi- 
table.— Statesmen Hastened the Day.— The Colonies 

xxi 



xxii CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

Snubbed.—Vicious Views at Home.-— Turn of the Tide. — 
Early Pioneers. — The Royal Colonial Institute.— Edward 
Gibbon Wakefield.— Labilliere, Frederick Young, John 
Colomb. — Tardy Co-operation of Professional Politi- 
cians. — Colonial Workers. — The Queen's Influence. — 
Canadian Federation. — Froude's Mission to South 
Africa. — Birth of Imperial Federation Movement. — The 
Queen and Sir George Grey. — A Great Pro-Consul. — A 
South African Scandal. —Pinchbeck Administrators.— 
The Imperial Federation League. — The Colonial Exhi- 
bition, 1886. — First Colonial Conference. — Jubilees of 
1887 and 1897.— Loyalty to the Throne.— Its Genesis 
and its Raison dfEtre. — Throne and Empire Interde- 
pendent. — The Little Englander 21 

CHAPTER III. 

GROWTH IN AREA AND INFLUENCE. 

Population, Area and Trade in 1801. — Increase in 1850. — 
Figures at End of Century. — Proportion of Governing 
Race to Subject Races. — Colonies an Asset Against 
National Debt. — Not Wholly Acquired by Conquest. — 
Egypt, Nigeria, Zululand, Rhodesia, Uganda, Zanzibar. 
— Rapid Survey of Seventeenth and Eighteenth Cen- 
tury Acquisitions. — Colonies Added During Nineteenth 
Century. — How Acquired. — Subject Races. — Risks of 
Future Conflict with Rivals in Field of Colonisation. — 
Portugal's Colonial Estate. — Russia and India. — The 
Colonies Exposed to Risks Lacking Natural Bound- 
aries. — France's Ambition in the Mediterranean. — The 
British Empire at the End of its External Develop- 
ment 54 

CHAPTER IV. 

A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 

Emigration Due to Two Divergent Impulses, Adversity 
and Prosperity. — Irish Famine. — Gentlemen Adven- 
turers and Younger Sons. — Genesis of Emigration. — 



CONTENTS. Xxiii 

fac e 

Figures for the Century. — Loss to Empire by Emigra- 
tion to A.riierica. -Greater Britain : Does it Include the 
United States? — The Inwardness of Anglo Saxon Prog- 
ress. — Canadian Immigration and Progress. — Convict 
Labour. — Successful Opposition of the Cape to Convict 
Immigration. — The Australasian Colonies : New South 
Wales, Victoria, South Australia, West Australia, 
Queensland, New Zealand. — Nebulous Republicanism. — 
A Shadow Over New Zealand Progress. — A Colonial 
Office Scandal. — Tasmania. — Colonists Made to Receive 
Convicts and to Contribute to Their Support. — Imperial 
Government's Neglect of Australian Interests in the 
Pacific. — Persistent Deafness of British Governments 
to Advice and Warning from Men in the Know. — 
Dependencies which Cannot be Colonised. — South 
Africa the Key of the Empire 74 

CHAPTER V. 

THE CENTURY'S PROGRESS TOWARD IMPERIAL UNITY. 

The Century's Progress Toward Imperial Unity. — Real 
Value of Our Progress. — Greek and British Colonisation 
Compared. — Professor Freeman's Views. — Wayward 
Growth of British Empire. — Difficulties of Symmetrical 
Union. — Colonial Representative in an Imperial As-^ 
sembly. — Effect of French and German Colonial Activ- 
ity on British Empire. — America's Assumption of the 
Imperial Role.— Committed to Empire, Like it or Not. 
— Physical Obstacles to Federation Removed. — Moral 
Obstacles Fanciful. — The Agent-Generalship, its Possi- 
bilities of Expansion. — Distinguished Colonists Ad- 
mitted to the Privy Council. — Colonial Conferences of 
1887 and 1897.— The Cape Gives a Warship to the 
Empire.— The Significance of the Gift Examined.— 
Liability of Colonies to be Involved in Wars which do 
not Affect Their Interests. — Commercial Resolutions at 
Conference, 1897. — Imperial Penny Post. — Magnificent 
Loyalty of Colonies in Crisis of Empire, 1899-1900 98 



Xxiv CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER VI. 

FISCAL UNITY. 

PAGE 

Blind Forces Impel Our Forefathers to Fight for the New 
World. — Glory and Wealth Chief Impulses. — Latin 
Colonies Support the Motherlands.— India : Its Material 
Value.— Indirect Advantages Derived from Colonies.— 
Mr. George Parkin and Free Trade. — Blind Adherence 
to Political Shibboleths the Bane of Great Britain. — 
The Sorry Case of the West Indies. — The West Indies a 
Test Question.— The Free Breakfast-Table the English- 
man's Holy of Holies. — Utter Selfishness of the Average 
Britisher.— Cheap Sugar a Curse Rather than a Bless- 
ing. — Duty of an Imperial Government to Govern the 
Empire in Interests of its Smallest Province as Much as 
in that of the Metropolis.— The Wines of Australia, 
Columbia and the Cape. — Churlishness of Chancellors 
of the Exchequer. — Canada and Reciprocity. — Move- 
ment for Repeal of the Corn Laws. — Effects of Corn 
Laws Baneful. — Free Trade One-Sided. — Effect of Free 
Trade on Agriculture, on Rural People and on England 
and Colonies. — Probable Effect of a Five-Shilling Duty 
on Foreign Wheat. — A Plea for Imperial Reciprocity. — 
Its Far-Reaching Advantages to Motherland and Colo- 
nies. — The British Empire League 121 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE, 

Figures. — The Empire Could Supply all the Needs of the 
Motherland. — Foreign Competition Killing Great Brit- 
ain's Export Trade with the Colonies. — Consuls' Re- 
ports. — Supineness of British Manufacturers. — Foreign 
Consuls' Trade- Agents. — Consumption of English Goods 
per Head in America, the Continent and the Colonies. — 
Money Value of Colonists to Metropolitans. — German 
Traders Pushing England out of Foreign Markets and 
Colonial Markets. — Germany's Commercial Colonial 
Role.— Imports and Exports of Colonies.— Grand Totals 



CONTENTS. XXV 

PASE 

of Colonial Trade.— Wealth at Present a Necessary- 
Evil. — Sir Rawson Rawson's Figures. — Various Tariffs 
of our Forty-Four Colonies and Dependencies. — Colonial 
Taxation on Sensible and Elastic Bases. — British Taxa- 
tion Prejudiced and Cast Iron. — Indirect Effect on 
Population of Free Trade. — Miss MacNab Hits the 
Solution. — Mr. Mulhall's Shallow Conclusions. — Coun- 
try-Bred Man Happier, Sounder and Nobler than 
Townsman. — Strong Interest of Colonies in Keeping up 
High Standard of Home-Born Englishmen. — A British 
ZoUverein Impossible. — Destroy the Democracy and 
Destroy the Nation.— A Vicious Economic Policy 144 

CHAPTER VIII. 

GROWTH OF WEALTH— REVENUE AND DEBT. 

Revenue of Greater Britain in 1800, 1837, 1850, 1897.— 
Naturp.l Processes of National Growth Cannot be 
Hastened. — Socialistic Ideals Made Small Headway 
against Competitive Impulses of Century. — Colonial 
Debt. — Sir John Robinson Thereon. — Riskiness of Con- 
tinental Funds. — Advantages of Colonial Securities. — 
Effect of Independence on Value of Colonial Funds. — 
Mr. Chamberlain and Colonial Loans Bill. — Labou- 
chere's Rhodomontade. — Sir JohnColomb on Shrinkage 
of Colonial Trade. — Total Wealth of Greater Britain. — 
Canada's Agricultural Resources. — Principal Grant and 
Mr. John Charlton on Canadian Trade. — Increase in 
Exports and Imports in Recent Years. — Figures of Im- 
migration. — Lord Brassey on Manitoba. — Klondike. — 
Australasian Progress. — Gold, Wool, Agricultural Prod- 
uce. — Effects of Gold Mines on Agriculture. — New 
Zealand : Her Social Progress. — South Africa, the Key- 
stone of the Empire. — West African Colonies. — Sir 
George Taubman-Goldie. — East Africa. — The Bulk of 
the Minor Dependencies of Strategic and not Commer- 
cial Value. — Egypt. — India. — Straits' Settlements. — 
Hong Kong 175 



XXvi CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IX. 

HOME GROWTH. 

PAOB 

Robust Optimism, — Its Dangers. — Charles Booth and 
General Booth. — Professor Thorold Rogers Compares 
the Modern Outcast with the Mediaeval Serf. — Misery 
of the Residuum Class. — Farm Colonies the Cure. — 
Governments Make no Serious Attempts to Cope with 
Evil.— A Great Evil and Mother of a Hundred Evils. — 
Happiness, Negative : Misery, Positive. — Other Suffer- 
ers by Economic and Political Errors. — National Debt. — 
Checks on Increase of People. — Ireland : Potato Famine 
and its Results. — Ireland and Scotland Contrasted. — 
Home Rule. — The Growing Wealth of England and 
Scotland. — Housing. — Statistics of Wealth. — The Curse 
and Danger of Modern Plutocracy. — Imperial Taxation. 
— Local Taxation. — Free Trade Not Solely Responsible 
for Progress. — Mr. Rider Haggard on the Landowners' 
Ruin. — The Price Paid for Progress. — The Recording 
Angel Takes Note 211 

CHAPTER X. 

" THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 

Virile Races Build for Their Descendants.— The Charm 
of the Past. — Feudal Times, Georgian Times, Early Vic- 
torian Times. — Social Conditions in Cape Colony at 
Beginning of Century.— The "Poor Whites."— The 
Beginning of Australasia. — Canada in 1800. — The West 
Indies. — The Lot of the Poor in the Early Part of the 
Century. — The " Old Guard." — Joy in Labour Gone. — 
First Hand Evidence of Condition of People after 
Battle of Waterloo. — People in Great Cities. — Mr. 
Charles Booth's Figures.— The Glamour of London At- 
tracts the Capable and the Imbecile Indifferently. — 
Decline of Pauperism.— The Old Poor Laws.— State 
Socialism Actually Existing in England in Early Part 
of Century. — Pauperism Inci'eases in Ireland. — The 
Work-house. — Humanising it. — Growth of Thrift. — 



CONTENTS. XXVii 

PAGE 

Savings Banks. — Insurance. — How the Poor Live. — 
Hospitals' Unpaid Debt to the People.— Effect of In- 
creased Wealth in the Colonies 235 

CHAPTER XI. 

COMMUNICATION, 

Roads in 1800.— Stage Coaches. — Communication in 
Colonies in Early Part of Century. — Birth of Steam 
Locomotion. — Repeal of Navigation Laws. — The British 
Sailor in 1845. — Steamers Take Place of Sailing Vessels. 
— Steamships Link Motherland to Colonies. — The Great 
Lines of Ocean Steamships. — Increase in Efficiency of 
Seamen. — Railways. — Their Beginnings. — The Railway 
Boom and its Collapse. — Railway Progress. — Canals. — 
Colonial Railways. — The Post. — Penny Post. — Imperial 
Penny Post. — Mr. Henniker Heaton. — Telegraphs. — 
Telephones. — Submarine Telegraphy. — How Bungled 
like the Rest of the Public Services 263 

CHAPTER XII. 

SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

Education. — National and British Schools. — Sir James 
Shuttleworth. — Mr. Forster's Act. — Education in the 
Colonies. — Secondary Education in England. — Defects 
of Compulsory System.— Condemnation of Hard and Fast 
Curriculum. — Children in Country should be Taught in 
the Fields. — Feeding Starving Scholars. — Present Sys- 
tem Destroys Individuality. — Technical Education a 
Farce. — Children should be Taught the History and 
Geography of the Empire. — The Universities. — Man- 
ners. — Divorces. — Illegitimacy. — Crime and Corruption 
in Upper, Middle and Lower Classes. — Growth of Free- 
dom.— Burdett, Hone. — Effect of Devolution of Power 
to Democracy on Imperial Affairs. — Effect of Freedom 
on Trade. — Strikes. — Literature, Its Decadence. — Fic- 
tion a Bane. — Press Questionable Good. — Newspaper 
Statistics. — Colonial Press. — Art : Deadly Influence of 



xxviii CONTENTS. 

PAOB 

Royal Academy. — Colonial Art. — The National Gallery. 
—South Kensington.— The Drama.— Music— Novel.— 
Athletics. — Pan-Britannic Festivals. — Colonists and 
Metropolitans as Rivals in Sport and Comrades in Arms. 
— Sanitation . — Temperance,. — Science . — Police . — Gas. — 
The Land. — Civil Law Remains Chaotic. — Privy Coun- 
cil and Colonies. — Humanising the Criminal Lavrs. — 
Animals' Rights. — "Vivisection. — Religion. — Salvation 
Army.— Missionaries.— Empire Builders.— Social Dis- 
tinctions 287 

CHAPTER Xm. 

THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 

Modern Women in Opposite Camps. — The Sex Problem. 
— Plea for Franchise. — Home, Woman's True Political 
Sphere. — Professions and Trades Thrown Open to 
Women. — Laws Passed to Protect Women. — Women of 
To-day and 1800 and 1850 Compared.— Difficulties in 
Path of Women Early in Century. — Woman's Service 
to the Empire. — Bad Influence of " Smart" Society on 
Nation 325 

CHAPTER XIV. 

DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 

No Joint System of Defence for Colonies and Metropolis. 
— Trafalgar made our Over Seas Empire Invulnerable. 
— Our Moderation in Taking Colonies. — Neglect to 
Provide Adequate Ports of Call. — Statistics of British 
Army Previous to Queen's Accession. — Expectations of 
General Peace after 1815.~Army fell into Decay.— 
French Menace. — Volunteer Movement. — The Crimean 
War : Its Scandals and Humiliations. — Poor Result of 
our Arms in Half Century Following Waterloo. — Indian 
Mutiny an Exception. — The Duke of Wellington and 
the Army.— Sir Charles Napier.— Shorter Service. — 
Hardships of Soldiers. — Prince Consort as Army Re- 
former. — Risks of Invasion. — Decay of Militia and 
Yeomanry.— General Burgoyne's Report.— Volunteer 



CONTENTS. Xxix 

PAas 
Movement. — Territorial Units. — Abolition of Purchase. 
— Fine Stuff of Modern Army. — Much Remains to be 
Done.— Military Contingencies of the Future.— Co- 
operative System of Imperial Defence.— Miscalcula- 
tions.— The Boer Rebellion.— Imperial Federation for 
Defence. — Conscription. — Belated and Inadequate 
Army Reforms at End of Century. — The Democracy to 
Blame. — Curse of Party Government. — Defence of 
Empire cannot be Thrown Entirely on Navy. — The Rifle 
as a Defensive Weapon. — War Office a Fossilised Insti- 
tution. — Lessons of Boer War. — Causes of Boer Suc- 
cesses. — Gains from War 338 

CHAPTER XV. 

DEFENCE, NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 

Vast Change in Material of Navy. — Statistics. — Steam. — 
Ironclads. — Death of Wooden Walls. — Increase in Navy 
Estimates. — Foreign Navies. — German Ambition. — 
Great and Greater Britain must be Equal to a Three- 
power Combination. — Sir John Colomb's Propaganda. 
—"Pall Mall," "Morning Post."— Navy League.— 
Comparison of Navies. — Altered Conditions of Ship- 
building. — Cannot Build Quickly Now. — Democracy 
Rules ; Possible Effect in Times of Stress.— Defence a 
Matter of Insurance. — The Duke of Cambridge Thereon. 
— Sir Graham Berry. — Sir William Jervois's Visit to 
Australasian Colonies. — Victoria's Fleet. — Expenditure 
on Defence. — Australasian Navy Defence. — Australasia 
and South Africa. — Cape Contribution to Imperial 
Navy.— Colonel Hutton's Forward Scheme of Imperial 
Defence.— Mr. Arnold Forster's Case Against the 
Colonies.— Reason why Colonies have Deferred making 
Direct Contribution to Imperial Defence. — Colonists 
Spoiled Sons of Fortune.— Statistics of Colonial Defen- 
sive Forces.— Australasian Navy.— Improvements in 
personnel of Imperial Navy. — Jealousy between Army 
and Navy.— Coaling Stations.— The Conclusion of the 
Matter 381 



XXX CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 

PAGE 

South Africa the Keystone of the Empire. — Interests of 
Motherland and every Colony Bound up in it. — Magnifi- 
cent Services of Colonists in its Defence. — The Effect of 
the Victory at Trafalgar.— No Attempt at British Colon- 
isation of Cape. — How England might have Swamped 
Boer Elements in South Africa. — Neglect of the Land. 
— Reasons. — Increase of Area. — Exports and Imports. — 
Dutch Earth Hunger. — Condition of Agriculture Gener- 
ally in Early Part of Century and at the Cape.— Earl 
Macartney's Alleged Improvements. — Treatment of Na- 
tives by Boers — British Interference. — Genesis of Boer 
and Briton Conflict. — Slagter's Nek. — Sentimental 
Views as to Dealings with Dutch. — Language Question. 
— Sentimental Views of Native Races. — British Idolatry 
of Shibboleths. — Kaffir Wars. — Cape a Bye-word in 
Great Britain. — Settlers of 1820. — Lord Glenelg. — Voor- 
trekkers of 1834-38. — Emancipation of Slaves. — Boers 
Pioneers of Empire in South Africa. — The Transvaal 
Question 415 

CHAPTER XVII. 

THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 

Rapid Survey of Condition of People at Beginning of Cen- 
tury. — Material Progress Enormous. — Has it Reached 
its Apogee ? — The Red Spectre. — The Unfair Distribu- 
tion of Wealth. — Has Happiness Increased ? — Pleasure 
Everywhere ; Content Nowhere. — The Pursuit of 
Wealth. — The Apotheosis of the Material. — Religious 
Progress Contrasted with Spiritual Progress. — The In- 
diflerentism of the Lower Classes. — The Upper Classes 
Frankly Unbelievers. — Successful Onslaught of Free- 
Thinkers on the Bases ol Faith. — Progressive Man 
Adrift. — The Shadow Athwart Progress. — An Unhappy 
Age. — Hope for the Future 464 



ILLUSTRATIONS 

Facing Page 
Lord Milner frontispiece ^ 

Joseph Chamberlain . 1 ^ 

Sir John Colomb,K.C.M.G.,M.P 21-^ 

GeorgeR. Parkin, M.A.,LL.D.,C.M.G 121.. 

Right Hon. W. E. Forster 287 

Earl of Rosebery 381 



JOSEPH CHAMBERLAIN 

Photogravure fro^n an etching by C. Laurie. 



PEOGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE 
m THE CENTURY. 



CHAPTEE I. 

IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 

The last years of the eighteenth century and the 
first years of the nineteenth were so crowded with 
events pregnant with the germs of the century's de- 
velopment, that it may be said, without hyperbole, 
that the British Empire, as an Empire, was in its 
birth throes during that intensely vital period of 
our national history. The loss of America, grievous 
blow as it was to the amour propre of the nation, 
not only made Englishmen long for new worlds to 
conquer, but rendered them peculiarly sensitive to in- 
sult and nervously ready to resent it. It was no 
doubt largely this sensitiveness which animated and 
sustained the nation in that determined duel with 
France, which succeeded quickly on the cessation of 
the fruitless struggle with the United States. Eng- 
lishmen did not forget that it was the co-operation 
of France which enabled her colonies to defy suc- 

1 



2 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

cessf ully her authority ; and when the excesses of the 
Revolutionary factions in that country culminated 
in the massacre of Louis XVI., the people of Eng- 
land, who for a while had viewed favourably the 
efforts of the French people to free themselves from 
the tyrannical rule of despotic monarchs and scarce- 
ly less despotic priests and nobles, were alienated 
entirely, not only from France, but from the cause 
of liberty itself. The caricature of freedom which 
the French had set up on the other side of the Chan- 
nel fairly frightened them. The attempts of the 
French Republic to induce Englishmen to make com- 
mon cause with France against their own Government 
served still further to disgust the great majority 
among the ruling classes in this country with the 
cause of liberty. So we joined the nations of Europe 
in a nine years' war, which really had for its object 
the elimination of the French nation as a free 
people, and thus placing it once again under the 
heel of king, noble and prelate; while the tentative 
proposals for Parliamentary Reform brought before 
the House in 1793 were rejected by enormous ma- 
jorities. 

During the next few years men who had the cour- 
age to express, orally or in print, liberal opinions, 
though put forth for the most part academically 
rather than as active propagandism, were brought 
to trial and speedily sentenced by the judges to 
lengthy terms of imprisonment or transportation. 
The people, although they had parliamentary" gov- 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 3 

eminent and theoretically governed themselves, 
probably enjoyed less real freedom than at any time 
of their history since the days of Henry VIII. and 
Elizabeth. The King, of course, had not the plen- 
itude of power of either of these monarchs; the 
real power belonged to a small body of territorial 
magnates, who could actually nominate and secure 
the election of whomsoever they chose to represent 
them in Parliament, although nominally these mem- 
bers represented the people. Still, while he retained 
his faculties, George III. had very real power, for 
he was able to prevent one of the strongest Minis- 
ters of modern times, Pitt, from extending the 
smallest measure of freedom, civil or political, to 
the Roman Catholics. It is even said that the pres- 
sure brought to bear upon him to induce him to 
relent, or in other words, to be, as he judged it, un- 
true to the oath he took as Defender of the Faith 
at his Coronation, brought on the mental malady 
from which he suffered during the last twenty years 
of his life. When it is remembered that the raison 
d'etre of his dynasty was the hatred and mistrust 
of the people of the Papacy, his obstinacy is not 
difficult to understand. 

In any case it may be asserted generally of the 
people of Great Britain and Ireland, that, until the 
Reform Bill of 1832 swept away a mass of rotten 
boroughs and gave the people some measure of po- 
litical power, the kingdom was really governed 
by an exceedingly small oligarchy, and that, while 



4: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

free in name, the people were really minus almost 
every prerogative of freedom. We are accustomed 
to-day to regard that passionate expression of this 
undeniable fact set forth by Shelley in that unre- 
strained outpouring of a fervid soul, afire with 
indignant wrath at the suffering of his countrymen, 
— as a rhapsodical phantasy. But as a matter of sober 
truth, almost everything that poem contains, so far 
as its application to practical and contemporary 
evils is concerned, was justified by the facts. The 
people were mere cyphers. Their rulers so regarded 
them. They could not combine for the redress of 
wrong, or for procuring a better wage in return for 
their labour. Insignificant crimes, the smallest 
thefts, were punishable with death or transporta- 
tion. The Corn Laws were framed exclusively in 
the interest of the landowners. 

Throughout the war with France, which, with 
a temporary cessation of a few months, lasted from 
1793 to 1816, the average price of corn was 84s. a 
quarter, and a loaf was sometimes priced as high as 
Is. lOd. Salt was taxed to forty times its value. 
Almost every article of food and use — those things 
which the workingman to-day regards as the ne- 
cessities of life — ^was heavily taxed. It has been 
estimated that the labouring population paid to the 
Government half its wages in indirect taxation. In 
a word, though free in name, the great bulk of 
the people were serfs in fact, ^ov can it be said 
that the colonies were in much better case. The 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 5 

spirit which animated George IV. when, in sending 
his friend, Lord Charles Somerset, out to the Cape 
to serve a second term of office, he frankly averred 
that he was sending him to fleece the Hottentots — 
a playfully insulting way of designating the colo- 
nists on the part of that graceless prince — animated, 
in a greater or less degree, every public man of the 
period, though they drew the line at exploiting the 
colonists for the benefit of the home exchequer. The 
West Indies were regarded as mere slave plantations, 
useful for the production of rum and sugar; Aus- 
tralia was a penal settlement, that and nothing 
more; the Cape was valued as a place of call from 
India, and as a sanitarium for Indian troops and 
Indian officials, and for its strategical importance. 
Canada was about the only colony in which the root 
idea of a colony, — or what should be the root idea, 
that it is a home for the surplus population of the 
Motherland, — received any kind of recognition; 
though the settlement of Algoa Bay, the famous 
colonisation scheme of 1820^ marked a fitful ac- 
knowledgment of this great truth as regards Africa. 
So far as real political freedom is concerned, it 
cannot be said that the outlying portions of the Em- 
pire were in a much worse position than its metrop- 
olis. Until the Reform Bill of 1832 was passed, 
there was, as we have seen, very little real political 
freedom in the British Isles, and the record of the 
succeeding years, until the passage of the Redistri- 
bution Bill of 1885, had been practically a record 



6 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

of the gradual completion of the work of which the 
Act of 1832 was the first step. In other words, the 
Act of 1832 made possible all those developments 
along the path of freedom which, without it, could 
never ha.ve been accomplished, save at the price of a 
violent, as distinguished from a constitutional, revo- 
lution. In the colonies themselves, the impulse 
toward a greater measure of local freedom followed 
rapidly upon the quickening of that impulse at 
home, a quickening which sent its pulsating life 
through all the arteries of the imperial system. 

Lord Durham, an enlightened man, owing much 
of his inspiration to that remarkable thinker and 
worker in the cause of British imperialism, Ed- 
ward Gibbon Wakefield, was instrumental in pro- 
curing for Canada that system of self-government 
which, thirty years or so later, culminated in the 
Federal Union, under which Canada has worked 
out her destiny as a free nation, with conspicuous 
credit to herself and to the Empire. The Austra- 
lian colonies soon began to fall into line, the in- 
itiative being taken, as it should have been, by the 
premier colony, 'New South Wales. The year 1843 
marked the first step in the direction of local au- 
tonomy, and in less than ten years, ISTew South 
Wales was endowed with complete self-government. 
The other Australasian colonies followed in due 
season, and now, at the end of the century, Aus- 
tralia is on the eve of inaugurating a federal union* 

which v/ill make her in every sense of the word a 
* A federal unioi; has since been consummated. 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 7 

nation; indeed, although one has lived too long to 
dare to prophesy about seeming certainties, it is 
scarcely to be questioned that by the time this book 
is published, Australia will have become a Federal 
Commonwealth, or in other words, a united nation. 

The Cape had to tarry until 1872 before respon- 
sible government was granted to her, and i^atal 
until 1895. It cannot be said of either colony that 
the boon of self-government was withheld by Down- 
ing Street a moment after the time was ripe for its 
bestowal, or a day after the people of these colonies 
had clearly expressed their readiness and anxiety, 
to receive it. Indeed, in the case of the Cape, there 
is some reason for imagining that Great Britain 
somewhat anticipated the local demand for com- 
plete autonomy. Again, it is impossible to say at 
the moment whether the termination of the conflict 
forced upon us by the Transvaal, will eventuate in 
an imperial mandate under which all South Africa 
shall be required to enter into federal union; but 
it will be a great disappointment to persons like 
myself, who have fought for the imperial principle 
in South Africa, in and out of season, if the annexa- 
tion of the Republics, which is obviously inevitable, 
is not accompanied by some such measure.* So that 
before the new century opens, we may hope to see 
two other great dominions, founded more or less on 
the pattern of Canada, as adjuncts to the Central 
State of Great Britain and Ireland. This will 

mean that the larger scheme of imperial federation 
* Both Republics were annexed during 1900, 



8 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

is many steps nearer accomplishment. However 
these things may fall out, it must be said that, al- 
lowing for temporary fluctuations of local feeling, 
arising from transitory causes provocative of irri- 
tation, the policy of cutting the young nations which 
have sprung from the loins of Albion free from their 
leadiujOf strings, has justified itself by the great in- 
crease in the sentiment of loyalty and attachment 
to the imperial connection which has followed in 
its train, and in the marvellously rapid develop- 
ment both in freedom and in prosperity which all 
these communities have made since their political 
emancipation. 

It has been somewhat lightly said of the British 
Empire that our countrymen founded it in a fit of 
absence of mind. To give the idea any completeness, 
it should have been said that we formed it in a suc- 
cession of such fits. In any case the statement, 
jeu d'esprit, I should say, is true to this extent. 
Englishmen followed no settled plan or plans in 
building up the huge Empire which is now the heri- 
tage of the nation. Occasionally it is possible to 
discover some motive of quite secondary importance 
explanatory of their action. 

India was acquired as a field for commercial en- 
terprise, the Cape as a strategical base contingent 
on our Indian interests, Australia as a convenient 
" dumping ground " for our convicts, while the con- 
quest of Canada was largely, if not solely, under- 
taken, in order to oust the French from territory 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 9 

which gave them the power of interfering with the 
older American colonies. To these older American 
colonies we were led mainly by the eagerness of 
Henry VII. to repair the mistake he made in not 
taking Columbus under his wing, and thereby secur- 
ing the gold-producing regions which fell to Spain. 
Over and above all these more sordid incentives to 
national expansion, there can be no doubt that in a 
large measure England's action in founding col- 
onies, was due to what I may call artistic, or at least 
irresponsible promptings. We love adventure, nov- 
elty and danger; it is in our blood, and, despite the 
saving quality we possess, the power to pull our- 
selves together at the last moment, we are as a nation 
born gamblers, born speculators. 

It is obvious that the remote chance of acquiring 
fabulous riches entered into the calculations of 
those daring spirits who discovered and settled, or 
conquered and appropriated, those vast regions 
which lay outside the boundaries of the Old World. 
These men were, however, quite willing to accept 
the risk of getting nothing in return for their sacri- 
fices and labours, save the bare reward of excite- 
ment and novelty. It is clear that nine in ten of 
the pioneers of Empire did what they did for the 
pure love of the thing, while those who came after 
these pioneers, the syndicates and chartered com- 
panies and gentlemen adventurers, to place their 
shekels on the hazard of the die, are also entitled to 
be considered primarily as sportsmen. That they 



10 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

afterwards developed into administrators is due to 
the fact that they were in the main country gentle- 
men, or the sons of country gentlemen, in whom the 
capacity for administration, because they have ruled 
in their villages, is a rarely wanting inbred faculty. 
The English peoples are often spoken of as de- 
void of imagination; and assuredly they seldom per- 
mit themselves to be fired by purely abstract ideals, 
and are inclined to be indifferent to all ideals, save 
those which have enough of the practical to make 
their bearing on the actual well-being of the human 
family obvious. Still Englishmen are capable of 
making huge sacrifices for the triumph of any po- 
litical, ethical, or commercial idea which they have 
once adopted and made their own. Until quite re- 
cently, a great political idea — the idea which, for lack 
of a better name, we call Imperialism — was little 
more than a myth to them. Even now, although it 
has made immense headway during the last fifteen 
years, and in the last few months the pace has been 
greatly accelerated, it cannot be said to have fully 
possessed the British race and carried them along 
with it in the same manner, or to the same extent, 
as the ethical idea contained in the propaganda 
against slavery, possessed and impelled the imme- 
diate ancestors of the Englishman of to-day. Still 
he is about to take up the idea with the same single- 
ness of pu.rpose as he took up those other ideas ; the 
emancipation of the slave, the abolition of the Corn 
Laws. It falls under the category of ideas which 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. H 

he is accustomed after a long period of education to 
accept, and having accepted, to use an expressive 
colloquialism, to run for all they are worth. 

As yet Englishmen have not acknowledged to 
themselves that purely academic matters, such as 
art, let us say, have a sufficiently direct hearing upon 
the well-heing of the individual or the nation to be 
worth treating with the high seriousness the French- 
man instinctively accords to such questions. The 
intricate problems connected with art may be all 
important to the artist, but they are scarcely worth, 
so the average Englishman thinks, his earnest at- 
tention or thought; especially as in this, as in other 
academic questions, he suspects that the result of 
submitting himself to a rigorous examination of 
their intricacies might oblige him to abandon tastes 
which, however much he may secretly doubt their 
soundness, he has no intention of foregoing. But 
where any form of human enterprise or endeavour 
is presented to him, which has to do with the moral 
or physical well-being of himself, his children or his 
country — his limitations in recognizing such are of 
course considerable — it is easy to arouse his enthusi- 
asm, and the more so if the hope to be led or fol- 
lowed is a forlorn one, and the end to be gained is 
elusive, uncertain and difficult. Hence his persist- 
ent interest in the business of expanding the bound- 
ary lines of the national domain; there is a chance 
of practical gain; there is the risk of failure and 
disappointment ; a combination in which his peculiar 



12 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

genius revels. The latest convincing evidence that 
this spirit in him is as active as it ever was, is af- 
forded by the marvellous manner in which the 
shares of the Chartered Company of British South 
Africa have been taken up and inflated in price by 
the rank and file of the British public. 

'Now, what I have already said as to the forces 
which have conspired to make the British Empire, 
must be kept well in mind, if we are to understand 
the erratic manner in which that Empire has come 
into being. I maintain, and I am sure no one can 
study the history of the growth of our colonies, or 
satisfactorily explain the reasons for the ebbs and 
flows in the tide of imperial progress, without recog- 
nising that, notwithstanding the practical considera- 
tions which gave the spice of interest and supplied 
the stakes in the game, the British Empire was 
founded by men who knew they were playing a 
game; by men of the true gambler type, who would 
go on playing, however much the odds might be 
against them, for the sake of the game itself. E'oth- 
ing else can explain the indifference with which 
Englishmen have regarded the results, when these 
results were of such a nature as to put a period on 
the game itself. We have often, for instance, 
thought more of ousting a hated European rival, than 
of turning our conquest of him to practical ac- 
count. 

While this attitude of mind has saved us from 
attempting — unless our tardy attempt to tax un- 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 13 

represented America can be so described — to exploit 
our colonies for the benefit of stay-at-home English- 
men in the manner of the Spaniards and Portuguese, 
it has prevented us nearly always from giving much 
thought and attention to the development of colonies, 
hardly won, so soon as the strain and stress of win- 
ning them was relaxed. So far as this country is 
concerned, it not only accounts for the extraordinary 
way in which we have relinquished possessions we 
spent millions of treasure and innumerable lives to 
acquire, but for that callous indifference to the well- 
being of our colonies, that im^patient irritation in 
the face of difficulties, and reluctance to grapple wath 
them and with the consequences and problems 
growing out of our imperial position, which, 
throughout the greater part, by far the greater part, 
of the century, have characterised our extra-insular 
policy. We began the century well, or to be quite 
precise, ended the eighteenth century well in this 
respect. 

When, after seven years' struggle with France, 
in a war which is estimated to have cost us some- 
thing like £450,000,000 sterling and 100,000 lives, 
a war in which we had supplied money lavishly, 
for the most part wasted and diverted to other ends, 
to half the nations of the Continent, we grew weary 
of the contest, and of the fearful sacrifices entailed, 
and concluded the Treaty of Amiens, we practically 
gave back to France, by whom we had not been con- 
quered, everything we had gained. Pondicherry, 



14 PROGBESB OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Cochin, Kegapatam and the Spice Islands in Asia; 
Senegal in Africa, and practically the Cape of Good 
Hope, for that colony, being a dependency of Hol- 
land, was subservient to France. In America, St. 
Pierre and Miqnelon, those islands off Newfound- 
land, which have since proved to be worth their 
weight in gold to that colony. In the West Indies, 
Martinique, St. Lucien and Guadeloupe ; and in the 
Mediterranean, Malta. We retained practically 
nothing save Ceylon and Trinidad. 

Of course it is not maintained that this absurd 
and quite unnecessary sacrifice was entirely due to 
the fact that we had lost all interest in colonies, 
though obviously that was in a large measure the 
case. We were temporarily weary of fighting the 
battles of the Continent, and of being incontinently 
filched of our wealth by time-serving and deserting 
allies. In a passing fit of sanity the twenty-five 
millions who then constituted the inhabitants of 
these islands, or their rulers as I should say, recog- 
nised that it was madness to stand champion for the 
whole world, especially when that world treated its 
benefactor in the most cynical and selfish fashion, 
and showed plainly that it regarded her as a milch- 
cow, whose only use was to satisfy its exigent re- 
quirements. It was not possible, of course, that a 
proud and self-reliant people could be satisfied for 
long with such a peace as that, especially as the 
French continued to treat this country with every 
circumstance of insolence, and showed plainly that 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 15 

they intended to use the possessions which they had 
regained, as a fulcrum whereby they might wrest 
the whole of our Empire from us. Put to the touch- 
stone, as we were, of our national spirit, we began 
to be exceedingly anxious to regain the influence 
and the territory we had bartered away for a shab- 
bier mess of pottage than ever betrayed the senses 
of Esau into renouncing his birthright. We pulled 
ourselves together; and this time with the settled 
determination not only to oust ISTapoleon from every 
position where he could menace us, but to wipe him 
off the board altogether. 

So far as the assumption of the role of Universal 
Deliverer was concerned, it was probably as ill-ad- 
vised as it was Quixotic. ISTapoleon repeatedly said 
that if we had confined ourselves to protecting our 
island and its dependencies he would have been pow- 
erless to harm us. But this did not suffice for us. It 
was only in keeping with the knight-errantry of the 
British character that we should have desired to make 
all our arch-enemy's enemies our friends; and that 
we should have aspired to fight their battles for them. 
Europe has been accustomed to complain, through- 
out the greater part of this century, of our selfishness 
and isolation ; of our reluctance, or rather of our set- 
tled determination not to involve ourselves in quar- 
rels, or to champion causes, however just, unless 
our interests demanded it. 

But Europe forgets that we saddled ourselves 
with a national debt, the interest on which still ab- 



16 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

sorbs about a quarter of our national revenue, in order 
to free Europe from the autocrat who kept her under 
his heel. It has been stated, and the figures are 
probably approximately true, that from first to last 
our twenty years' war with France cost this coun- 
try £200,000,000 sterling and a million lives. I^ow, 
as Napoleon said, had we been entirely selfish in 
meeting him, had we confined ourselves to attacking 
him where he menaced us, we should have gained all 
that we did gain, and far more at a cost compara- 
tively insignificant. This is true. It is true, too, 
that in diverting the pecuniary resources and fight- 
ing qualities of the nation to the business of inter- 
meddling in Continental politics, the nation has 
been, directly in any case, an enormous loser. 

It must not be forgotten however, that out of the 
hurly-burly of these eighteenth and nineteenth cen- 
tury wars came all our colonies; not all, as in the 
case of Canada, India and Australia by conquest, 
but the immediate necessity occasioned by thefee 
wars, the creation of an all-powerful navy, made 
it possible for us to acquire the others — Australia, 
to wit — and made it possible for us to retain our 
hold on all of them. That these wars did more for 
Great Britain than this may be presently shown. 
The supreme effort which Nelson made at Trafalgar 
secured for us that naval supremacy never before 
firmly established, and never since successfully chal- 
lenged, which is to-day the sine qua non of our na- 
tional, as it is of our imperial, existence. We are 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 17 

really indebted to I^^apoleon for forcing us to assume 
this position. 

But naval supremacy, imagined to-day to be suffi- 
cient for our defence, did not satisfy our ancestors. 
Step by step, fighting against almost insuperable 
difficulties and obstacles, Wellington set himself the 
task of compelling the magnificent fighting machine 
I^apoleon had evolved, to acknowledge itself in- 
ferior to the still more magnificent fighting machine 
he had created. Throughout six years of patient 
toil, the weary stages of the Peninsular war, he per- 
fected this machine. I have said just now that 
the terrible sacrifices and stupendous exertions of 
that twenty years' war, did something for us over 
and above establishing our navy and our Empire. 
It created simultaneously the grit in the people 
themselves, which has throughout the best part of 
a century enabled them not only to retain and 
uphold both, but to people those colonies which re- 
mained to us at the end of this Titanic contest, 
with men and women endowed with the high 
qualities of an imperial race. 

The war left us exhausted, impoverished; to out- 
ward appearance listless and bankrupt. But so 
strong a stimulus did it supply to those puissant 
qualities of our race, always present with it, 
though sometimes obscured, that it is a fact, and 
this fact is one of the marvels of history, that 
throughout the war, the commerce and wealth of 
England grew with amazing strides, despite the in- 
2 



18 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tense sufferings and privations it entailed upon tHe 
people. But the hour of their deliverance was at 
hand. Men's thoughts every where were kindling for 
a new birth. In literature Shelley, Byron and Keats 
were stirring the dry bones of thought and bringing 
forth a new message to the world; a message of 
freedom; of nature worship and of universal love. 
Science, both in an academic and in a practical 
sense, was placing itself at the service of man's in- 
tellect, and putting into his hands myriad ap- 
pliances whereby he might obliterate space and com- 
bat disease. 

The truth of the matter is that war quickened 
men's pulses, as the suffering it entailed quickened 
their spiritual and intellectual activities ; and within 
the small confines of these islands, a great heart began 
to beat which presently made itself felt at the very 
extremities of the huge dominion of which they had 
come to be the centre. What was to result from this 
pulsation was not seen; not so much as dimly sus- 
pected. Men left these isles in thousands, and in 
leaving, took with them all unconsciously their 
moiety of that vigorous confidence in the poten- 
tialities of their race, which the glorious issue 
of the twenty years' struggle with one of the 
most powerful combinations and personalities the 
world has seen — implanted in their breasts. They 
left their native land in sorrow, it is true ; sometimes 
in anger and disgust at the hard conditions which 
made life impossible at home. They had no thought, 



IMPULSE TO IMPERIAL PROGRESS. 19 

perhaps, that they were going to build up in other 
zones, mighty bulwarks for the country they were 
leaving, because it could not feed them. In Eng- 
land, assuredly, no such thought was officially whis- 
pered. So far as emigration found any encourage- 
ment, it was mainly on the prosaic plea that it kept 
the unemployed off the rates. Nor did the meaning 
of what was shaping itself in the womb of the un- 
known, glimmer in the intelligence of the British 
race for many a long day. The dreary days of 
darkness which led up to the doctrines of separa- 
tion, openly avowed and preached by the Manchester 
School, had to be lived through. 

At last, fitfully, the truth began to be perceived 
and presently to be proclaimed in words of fervid 
conviction by the earlier prophets of the imperial 
idea, the idea of a federated race of free nations, 
owing allegiance to one Sovereign, and to one code 
of laws, all upholding the torch of freedom and 
liberty, of enlightenment and progress and of or- 
derly government in the face of the whole world; 
— all presenting a splendid spectacle of a united 
Empire, a free people of many nations upon which 
the sun never sets — to a world at first envious, but 
finally, as we believe, admiring. Eor the banner 
of this Empire is not advanced or to be advanced 
with defiance, but with the resolute purpose to pre- 
serve the unity of the peoples marshalled under it 
against all and every comer. 

The impulses which made for this wonderful re- 



20 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

suit, entirely unperceived in their inception, were 
the same old predilections towards a practical ideal, 
that same determined and sturdy independence in 
thought and action which has always been the heri- 
tage of our race. The great truth has dawned upon 
the Englishman in every part of the world, that in 
order to conserve that individual liberty which has 
been an Englishman's most cherished possession 
since he gradually emancipated himself from !N"or- 
man domination, and to secure himself from a 
repetition of the fate which overtook him at Battle, 
he must stand shoulder to shoulder with the men 
of his blood under whatsoever sky they may be 
found. Therein lies his security, and therein the 
pledge for the continuance throughout the ages of 
those glorious pages of his history with which his 
achievements have enriched the record of the past. 




ADMIRAL SIR JOHN COI.OMB, K.C.M.G., M.P. 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 21 



CHAPTEE 11. 

GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 

The imperial idea as we understand it to-day: 
a number of free nations banded together under one 
sovereignty, whether that sovereignty be vested in 
an elective Chief Magistrate, or in an hereditary 
Monarch, seems scarcely to have entered into the 
mental purview or calculation of the statesmen of 
the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, 
although, as Professor Seeley has remarked, Milton 
pictured England as standing with all her daughter- 
lands about her. l^one the less, in Milton's day the 
imperial idea was purely speculative, for although 
Cromwell, who had some glimmering of it, did much 
to establish England in the domination of the seas, 
our colonies in his day were insignificant in com- 
parison with those of Spain and Portugal. So far 
as our American colonies were concerned, the very 
manner of their settlement, in the main by religious 
refugees, and in a less degree by political insurgents, 
was not favourable to the perpetuation in any 
marked degree of a strong sentiment of attachment 
to the Mother Country. They certainly had no 
tolerance for that antiquated form of imperialism 
which Lord l^orth presented to them, when he at- 



22 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tempted to make them, unwilling and unrepresented, 
contributors to the revenues of the Home Govern- 
ment. Lord J^orth's blunder seems inexcusable to 
those v^^ho can be very wise after the event ; but there 
was plenty of justification for his policy, though 
none for his unwise way of pursuing it. With that 
however I am hardly concerned, only so far as the 
cession of America in 1783 may be said to have 
influenced this country's attitude toward her colonies 
then existing, and afterAvards to be founded. That 
this abandonment of sovereignty did greatly influ- 
ence the trend of popular thought and of&cial action 
is indisputable. For a .while England seemed to 
have become listlessly indifferent to colonies, of 
which attitude the extraordinary renunciation at 
Amiens in 1802 of all that we had gained by our 
seven years' war with France, may be taken as 
evidence. It is true that a few years sufficed to re- 
create in us the spirit of military imperialism; 
though it can scarcely be said that we valued those 
extra-insular possessions v/hich one by one we added 
to our empire, for themselves, but rather as the out- 
ward insignia of power, and because they increased 
our importance in the scale of nations. Considera- 
tions of trade were not left out of our calculations; 
they influenced our policy in greater or less degree ; 
but not, I think, so greatly as most writers and 
historians are inclined to maintain. 

As time went on, and the colonies under our flag 
began to grow in area, population and wealthy the 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 23 

conviction that they were hastening to achieve their 
destiny in distinct and separate existence, seems to 
have taken possession of all, or nearly all our public 
men. What America had done, it was thought 
Canada, Australia and South Africa would undoubt- 
edly do, so soon as they were respectively and in- 
dividually strong enough to demand their independ- 
ence. It is not too much to say that English states- 
men became impatient at the dilatoriness of the 
colonies: they went so far as to endeavour to hasten 
the day when they should ask for complete separa- 
tion from the Motherland. Lord Salisbury recently 
said in his haste, that Africa was the plague of all 
Foreign Ministers, and it is undeniable that some 
such sentiment with a wider application, for it em- 
braced all the colonies, animated succeeding For- 
eign Ministers throughout the early part of the cen- 
tury, and was still operative when under Lord 
Aberdeen's Administration (1852-55) it was first 
found expedient to segregate the affairs of the 
colonies under a department of their own. Hitherto 
they had been administered by the Secretary of State 
for War. 

Mr. Froude tells us that when Lord Palmerston 
became Colonial Secretary, he had so little idea of 
the geographical situation of the countries he had 
undertaken to govern, that he begged a friend to 
get him maps and show him " where the places 
were." The story, with a score of its kind with 
which I might encumber these pages, is perhaps of 



24 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the hen trovato order, for Lord Palmerston was, I 
believe, never Colonial Secretary, but it sufficiently 
indicates the mental attitude of Ministers at Home 
who presided over the destinies of the colonies. 
Cold indifference and studious neglect were all the 
outlying portions of the Empire had to expect from 
the Motherland. 'No doubt this treatment had its 
compensations. There is nothing children desire so 
much as to be left alone by their elders, so that 
they may mature their own plans undeterred by sage 
advice and grave admonishings, to them wholly 
superfluous. But when they think they have accom- 
plished unaided something which deserves recogni- 
tion and praise, they look eagerly for their reward, 
and are bitterly disappointed if their parents and 
guardians withhold it from them. It cannot be 
denied that this is very much what happened to 
the colonies throughout the first three quarters of 
the century. The stay-at-home Briton questioned 
their utility, and grudged the outlay they occasioned. 
South Africa and New Zealand particularly were 
constantly involving us in costly military opera- 
tions. No colony contributed to the home revenue; 
in brief the feeling of Great Britain throughout the 
early part of the Queen's reign, when the narrow 
tenets of the so-called Manchester School were as- 
cendant, was very much that of an impatient father 
who resents the disposition on the part of able-bodied 
and capable sons to continue in dependence upon 
him, at an age when, as it seems to him, they are 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 25 

old enough and strong enough to walk alone. I do 
not say the feeling was justified, nor is the analogy, 
for the colonies are daughters and not sons. More- 
over at that time they were, so far from being full- 
grown children, really little more than promising 
bantlings. This in any case was true of many of 
them. But however unreasonable, this view of our 
colonies, almost universally entertained at home, was 
such as I have indicated. 

It would be difficult to set down with precision 
at what particular moment this short-sighted and 
ungenerous view of our colonial dependencies be- 
gan to give way to more magnanimous sentiments. 
The view prevailed, as I have said, all through 
the earlier part of the century; and was still opera- 
tive when the Queen had completed the first forty 
years of her reign. There were, it is true, a few 
writers and thinkers who cherished the traditions of 
Burke and of the Younger Pitt, and in whom the 
teachings of Adam Smith were still an active force. 
But their voices were feeble: they cried unheeded 
in the wilderness, and the echo they evoked was but 
the reverberation of their own words. In examining 
the literature on the subject, it is significant — an 
accidental significance if the point is insisted upon — 
that the first published work of the century which 
set forth the great idea, for which so many stalwarts 
have since fought, that the colonies and the Mother- 
land must be incorporated and form one universal 
and indivisible Empire, appeared in 1839, two years 



26 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

after the accession of Her Majesty. In 1857, the 
desire of the Australian colonies to be represented 
in the British Parliament made itself articulate in 
the metropolis at a meeting held at the London 
Tavern, Mr. W. C. Wentworth in the chair, Canada 
having two years previously, and on several imme- 
diately subsequent occasions, made a like claim, 
her spokesman being the Hon. Joseph Howe, who 
continued through many years to uphold the cause 
of colonial representation in the Imperial Parlia- 
ment. It may be taken however, as a broad fact, 
not exactly true of course, that the persistent ad- 
vocacy of the cause of imperial unity synchronises 
with the establishment, in 1868, of the Koyal Co- 
lonial Institute. As we have seen, the tendencies 
making for the recognition of this great cause had 
received direct stimulus in earlier years. Among its 
harbingers, Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a name ever 
to be remembered and held in honour by English- 
men, must be specially mentioned; while obviously 
before such an organisation as the Royal Colonial 
Institute could be founded in ever so humble a 
way, and it is not denied that it owed its origin to 
tentative, experimental, and modest beginnings, a 
good deal of pioneer work had to be done, and done 
it was by enthusiastic believers in the potentialities 
of our race; men who had that most splendid and 
rare of all political gifts, the power to deduce from 
the past and present a working thesis as to the 
future; men that is to say endowed with proleptic 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 27 

imagination, informed by deductive reasoning and 
able, so equipped, to take time bj the forelock. It 
is not possible in the compass of this work to do 
more than generalise, else it would be my duty to 
linger over this factor in the forces making for 
imperial unity and imperial growth — ^the personal 
equation, and to sing the praises of those sturdy 
pioneers of a great cause, who in those early days 
kept alive the faith in the high destinies of the 
British race. 

Edward Gribbon Wakefield stands foremost 
among these enlightened patriots. This brave soul 
was untiring in sowing the good seed. It fell for 
the most part on stony ground, but some of it, hap- 
pily for our nation, chanced on congenial soil and 
brought forth fruit in due season. Concurrently 
with the establishment of the Colonial Institute, a 
noble army of workers entered the field — William 
Westgarth, Fox Bourne for remembrance, but the 
persistent workers who after Wakefield, from whom 
all caught the fire which lighted their torches, 
must be regarded as the linkmen of imperial unity, 
are Francis de Labilliere, Frederick Young, and 
John C. R. Colomb. There were many others, but 
these three are the real fathers of the imperial idea 
in our day and generation. The first has now gone 
to the Silence land, but the others happily remain, 
and continue the good fight to which they have de- 
voted their lives. As I have said they had their 
forerunners, and they have had, too, their numberless 



28 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

successors. And of these, many names bulk far more 
prominently in the public eye, than those of the real 
protagonists of the movement. The careless are 
deceived into imagining that those politicians and 
statesmen who at the eleventh hour, from convic- 
tion or convenience, associate themselves with causes 
which have been made possible by single-minded 
workers entirely dissociated from and superior to 
the game of politics, are the real authors of great 
national movements; the student knows otherwise. 
It was greatly to the credit of such men as W. E. 
Forster and W. H. Smith that they grasped the 
significance of tendencies they had done little or 
nothing to stimulate or to create, and which they did 
not recognise until their attention was compelled 
by their healthy growth. In later times it has been 
greatly to the credit of Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, a 
man bred in the narrow school of parochial politics, 
that he developed in the prime of life the receptivity 
which enabled him to absorb and assimilate ideas 
to which in his youth he was antagonistic, or in any 
case indifferent. While all this must be acknowl- 
edged, we must not be blinded to the fact that the 
real pioneers of imperial unity, the men who from 
their youth upward have given of their best to 
secure the triumph of the cause, are not and never 
were professional politicians. They have held aloof 
from party politics, the factions fighting for place 
and ofiice, and are therefore to be trusted to work 
some good for the national welfare, instead of be- 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 29 

trajing the nation to its ruin. Party politics have 
nearly accomplished this fell result over and over 
again during the century, and before its close they 
may have become responsible for an irreparable 
national disaster. But of this danger I must speak 
in its proper place. 

In the great cause of imperial unity many names 
as I have said might be mentioned in addition to 
those already singled out. Those of the late Sir 
George Baden-Powell, Sir Charles Nugent, Mr. 
Arnold-Porster and Sir Howard Vincent must not 
be omitted ; nor must I forget colonial workers. Sir 
Julius Vogel in E'ew Zealand ; Sir Harry Parkes in 
Australia; General Laurie, Sir Charles Tupper and 
George R. Parkin in Canada; Sir George Grey at 
the Cape and Sir John Robinson in JSTatal. Such 
men as Professor Seeley and James Anthony Proude, 
men of splendid literary power and ripe scholarship, 
belong to the Empire. Professor Seeley' s Expan- 
sion of England did not appear until 1884 and 
Mr. Fronde's Oceana was given to the public in 
1886. Before these books saw the light, the ideas 
which they did so much to elucidate and popularise 
were already fructifying ; the good seed having been 
freely sown during the decade which preceded their 
publication. Great as was the service both these 
able writers rendered the imperial cause, that service 
cannot be regarded as in any way equal to that of 
the pioneers of whom I have already spoken; men 
who devoted their lives to making these ideas pos- 



30 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

sible at a time when the popular ear was hermetic- 
ally sealed to such teaching. I repeat then, that the 
real fathers of this movement toward imperial 
unity, were Francis de Labilliere, Frederick Young 
and J. C R. Colomb. These men, and Sir Fred- 
erick Young is their doyen, have worked incessantly 
in and out of season to bring home to the popular 
mind the splendid potentialities bound up in this 
magnificent idea, and the vital benefits contingent 
upon its acceptance. 

I should, however, be doing a great injustice 
were I to omit to mention a silent influence, unper- 
ceived by the mass of the people and almost unrecog- 
nised by their leaders, which has contributed im- 
measurably toward the general acceptance of the 
imperial idea. The Queen's place in the Consti- 
tution, and her loyal observance of the limitations 
imposed upon her direct control of public affairs, 
have veiled from the world the fact that Her 
Majesty has exercised her influence almost from 
the first to strengthen the ties which bound her 
colonies to the Crown and to Great Britain, and 
to minimise and neutralise all those unfortunate 
mistakes or misunderstandings which have tended 
toward the disruption of the Empire. This fact has 
become patent now; but when the lapse of years 
has relieved Her Majesty's Ministers, or their de- 
scendants and representatives, from the obligations 
which now compel their silence, it will be far more 
patent. Obviously the influence of the Prince Con- 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 31 

sort, who early grasped the imperial idea, must be 
accorded its proper weight, when we praise the far- 
sighted prescience of our Sovereign. But I shall 
have to refer to the splendid services the Queen's 
husband rendered the Empire over and over again 
in these pages : to my mind no single Englishman of 
the reign has exercised a more beneficial and salu- 
tary influence over the nation than Prince Albert 
of Saxe-Coburg. 

When the Queen came to the throne the colonies 
were regarded, it is not too much to say so, as incon- 
venient encumbrances, and this way of looking at 
them still obtained when the various Canadian col- 
onies were united into one commonwealth in 1867. 
^"either is it too much to say that half of the sup- 
port given at home to the policy of confederating 
these colonies, came from men who thought that they 
were aiding a movement which would culminate 
in Canada becoming an independent state. Even 
as late as 1875, when Lord Carnarvon sent Mr. 
Fronde on his ill-omened visit to South Africa in 
the belief that he would bring about a confederation 
of the various South African colonies, many of the 
politicians who favored this project, based their 
support on the hope that its accomplishment would 
pave the way to the assumption on the part of the 
South African colonies, not only of complete auton- 
omy, but complete independence. Of course the 
Government had no such intention. 

It may be said however, that with the exception 



32 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. " 

of Lord Carnarvon and Mr. Forster, no statesman 
of the first rank had definitely committed himself 
to the policy of permanent legislative union between 
England and her colonies, until the Conference on 
Imperial Federation held at the Westminster Pal- 
ace Hotel on July 29, 1884, brought together all, 
or nearly all, the old workers for that cause, and 
with them a respectable contingent of statesmen and 
politicians of the first rank who had not previously 
associated themselves with it. 

It will be seen, therefore, that the Queen antici- 
pated all her Ministers, and nearly all her subjects 
as a firm upholder of the imperial idea. Many 
proofs of this might be given, but none is more con- 
clusive than her warm support of Sir George Grey 
in the fifties, when that splendid public servant en- 
deavoured to consolidate Her Majesty's dominions, 
and to establish firmly her sovereignty in South 
Africa. If the Queen had had her way, Grey would 
have accomplished his purpose, and spared the Em- 
pire many a bitter experience. But she was over- 
ruled by her wilful and ignorant Ministers, and 
Grey and the Empire were sacrificed. Through- 
out her reign, the Queen has shown that she has 
fully appreciated the magnificent position which has 
come to her by inheritance, and her determination 
to maintain that inheritance in all its glory. Of 
course, as a constitutional monarch, her powers are 
very limited, and she has been constantly check- 
mated by her Ministers. But the Queen has been 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 33 

wiser than her Ministers. For nearly half a century 
these Ministers took scant pains to conceal their in- 
difference to the colonies, and their impatience at 
their reluctance to take the hints, brutally admin- 
istered to them, to cut themselves adrift from the 
Motherland. So far as it has lain in her power, the 
Queen has done everything to foster the growth of 
a healthier imperial feeling and to stimulate latent 
Imperialism wherever it was to be found. She has 
always* supported her pro-consuls in the difficult 
task of upholding the authority of the Crown against 
those traitors at home and traitors abroad who, too 
often throughout her reign, have wreaked their 
sweet will to the irreparable damage of the Empire. 
I have referred already to the memorable instance 
of Sir George Grey. It would carry me beyond the 
scope of this work, were I to attempt to follow in 
minute detail the story of Sir George Grey's splen- 
did services to the Empire and his ungrateful, not 
to say base desertion by Downing Street. Mr. Cas- 
tell Hopkins has told us how the Queen stood by her 
Viceroy, and we have to-day, as we have had on 
many a previous day, to regret that she was not able 
to give him anything much more substantial than 
moral support, although she did all she could to pre- 
vent his recall from the Cape and brought all her 
influence to bear to secure his reinstatement. Sir 
George Grey was a born Empire-maker. His serv- 
ices as an explorer in Western Australia secured for 
him the appointment as first Governor of South 

a 



34 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. ' 

lA^ustralia. He did wonders there, restoring order, 
and turning mutiny, ruin and discontent into con- 
tentment and prosperity. Four years later he was 
sent to 'New Zealand, and he accomplished even 
greater things in that colony, bringing cosmos out 
of chaos. For a technical, a small sin against the 
majesty of the Colonial Office, he was sent to 
Coventry. But when our traditional policy of 
shuffle and desertion in South Africa had brought 
things to a dangerous crisis there. Sir George Grey 
was remembered, as strong men are apt to be re- 
membered in the hour of need. He was sent out to 
see what he could do. In two consecutive years we 
had thrown away the Transvaal and Orange Free 
State, thrown them away with curses at the continual 
trouble and expense in which they involved us, 
curses which have come home to roost throughout 
the half century which has elapsed since then. So 
Sir George Grey was marked out as the best man, 
almost the only man clearly indicated by his record 
and achievements, to get us out of the difficulties 
created by our pusillanimity. He found a way, but 
he was deserted as Sir Bartle Frere was a quarter 
of a century later. Sir Alfred Milner has taken up 

the ravelled skein, and 

But this is to anticipate. I cannot deal with his- 
tory in the making. The To be or Not to be of the 
Empire is likely to be settled one way or the other 
before the century closes. It must surely be settled 
in the affirmative. If not, what a sorry anti-climax 
the whole of these pages must become. 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 35 

What the Queen thought of Sir Bartle Frere's 
desertion, it is too early to learn. From what that 
much-sinned-against man wrote soon after his re- 
call in 1880, we can very easily guess what she 
thought. In any case she deeply resented the de- 
sertion of Sir George Grey, and has put on record 
her utter abhorrence of the treatment meted out by 
her Government to another great servant of the 
Crown— the gallant Gordon. Grey governed the 
black races with wisdom and authority, and made 
the name of the Queen loved and respected through- 
out that portion of the sub-continent we then con- 
trolled and beyond it. He did wonders; accom- 
plished marvels. At the outbreak of the Indian 
Mutiny he took upon himself to send all available 
troops and stores from Cape Town to Calcutta, and 
went even further, directing the transports calling 
at the Cape, on their way to China, to make for Cal- 
cutta instead. There can be no doubt that the 
Queen's strong approval of his conduct influenced 
the Colonial Secretary in his own warm encomium 
of these acts — acts ultra vires though they were. 
He was commanded to express Her Majesty's ap- 
probation of her Viceroy's patriotic action. Such a 
man was and is after the Queen's own heart. A 
man who, in a moment of crisis and danger, can 
take a wise decision in the interest of the Empire 
and act upon it boldly and unflinchingly, unmindful 
of the risks and dangers to himself — such a man is 
fit servant to an Imperial Queen. In a private let- 



36 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ter Sir George Grey was assured of tEe Queen's 
admiration and content. But, despite the Queen's 
approval and the Colonial Office's endorsement of 
that approval, — a reluctant endorsement one may be 
sure, since it is an unforgivable sin to offend the 
majesty and sense of importance of any of the pub- 
lic offices, — it was not long before the intrepid High 
Commissioner was again in trouble with Downing 
Street, or, as I should say, before Downing Street 
was in trouble with him. This time the matter arose 
out of the bad faith of the Government in repudi- 
ating their engagement to supply the German Legion 
in South Africa with wives to be sent out from Ger- 
many, and Sir George Grey's action in sending the 
unmarried men to the Governor of Bombay to battle 
for the Empire. The Queen again supported her 
pro-consul. Disagreement after disagreement fol- 
lowed: exhibitions of unwisdom on the part of 
Downing Street and of dignified patience on the 
part of the sorely tried High Commissioner. At 
last, a resolution of the Volksraad of the Orange 
Eree State, favouring a union or an alliance with 
Cape Colony, gave Sir George Grey an opportunity 
of supplementing his luminous report on the affairs 
of South Africa by another in which he contended 
— and his case was as strong inherently as it was 
well-reasoned — that the hour had arrived when the 
states and colonies of South Africa should draw 
together in federal union. For speaking thus; for 
showing the way whereby a most difficult and irri- 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 37 

tating problem might be solved, Grej was roundly- 
abused by the Colonial Office, and in the end re- 
called. ISTow, as I have pointed out many times in 
recent years, and as Mr. Castell Hopkins has in- 
cisively shown, Sir George Grey's real sin was, that 
instead of pointing the way to the total abandon- 
ment of South Africa at the earliest possible moment 
at which this policy could be with outward decency 
effected, he advocated a course which would bind 
us still closer to South Africa. This was in 1858, 
when all parties in the State were possessed of the 
insane idea, an idee fixe, that the sooner Great Brit- 
ain should lop off all the colonies, the better for her 
immediate and ultimate interest. Throughout the 
greater part of the century the colonies have been 
in the keeping of incompetent statesmen, men like 
the two Stanleys, the elder Lord Derby and his 
son, men who had all the appearance of strength, 
but who were really far from being so strong as 
tLey appeared, and Lord Lytton (Sir Edward Bul- 
wer Lytton), as superficial and incapable as a states- 
man, as he was animated and stimulating as a writer 
of light fiction. Then there was another disap- 
pointing statesman. Lord Granville, who attempted 
his rose-water dalliance on the Iron Chancellor, and 
in so doing raised up for us a hornet's nest of 
trouble and difficulty in South Africa, a part of the 
world, as I read history, seriously neglected by the 
Derby Administration. These were the men whom 
our immediate ancestors too implicitly trusted. Had 



38 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Sir George Grey been given a free hand, had Sir 
Bartle Frere, a little later, been left to his own de- 
vices, we should have been out of the African wood 
long ago, and the history of Her Majesty's South 
African dominions would not have contained that 
unhappy and disgraceful chapter, the Jameson raid, 
nor would the strong measures for suppressing the 
Africander conspiracy to oust Great Britain from 
the sub-continent, which Sir Alfred Milner initiated, 
have been necessary. 

Sir George Grey, the greatest of all England's 
pro-consuls during the century, would have spared 
us all that we are now suiiering. By this time the 
two races of European origin in South Africa would 
have been in a fair way to become one race. But 
Lord Derby was determined that he must go, and 
the Queen's forceful language was all in vain. Lord 
Derby told Mr. Greville that the Queen was strongly 
prepossessed in Sir George Grey's favour, and that 
she contemplated his removal with feelings of re- 
pugnance. He afterwards admitted that he was 
afraid a mistake had been made, and, as we have 
seen, Sir George was almost immediately reinstated, 
though it was on the distinct understanding that 
he was to drop federation wholly and definitively. 
We are finding out to-day what that has cost the 
country. I am worrying this subject purposely, 
because I want to show that the incompetence, the 
" craven fear of being great ;" the intolerable self- 
sufficiency of a careless, doubting, neglectful Co- 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 39 

lonial Office have ever been the cause of our 
colonial troubles. The Governors on the spot have 
almost always risen to a sense of their duties, and 
have generally been fully equal to them, but until 
Mr. Chamberlain took the seals of the Colonial 
Office we had had few Colonial Secretaries, always 
excepting Lord Carnarvon and Edward Stan- 
hope, who were not above their business. Lord 
Carnarvon made, and Mr. Chamberlain has made 
mistakes; but Mr. Chamberlain, like Lord Carnar- 
von before him, has attempted to understand the 
problems with which he was called upon to deal. 
Obviously no man ought to be considered qualified 
for the post of Colonial Secretary, unless he has a 
personal and extensive knowledge of the colonies. 
So far as Sir George Grey was concerned, it was a 
case with him of the Queen and Grey against the 
whole might of the Lords and Commons; and the 
superior wisdom of these august assemblies carried 
the day. 

Mr. Castell Hopkins, in his admirable book. The 
Life and Reign of Queen Yictoria, tells of many 
other instances and w^ays in which Her Majesty 
has striven to counteract the Little Englanders. 
The Queen's strong imperialism has worked for 
the good of the Empire in another way, for apart 
from that sense of loyalty which comes traditionally 
to the Englishman, and especially to Englishmen 
engaged in the business of protecting and adminis- 
trating the Empire, the Queen has been able to 



40 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

evoke a sense of loyalty personal to herself in tHe 
breast of all men imbued with the imperial idea; 
while the knowledge that a common aim and sym- 
pathy existed between them and their Sovereign, 
the person designated by her position as the natural 
head of the Empire, and as its upholder and de- 
fender, has bound to the Throne a whole army of 
public servants, causing them to do and dare more 
for the honour and glory of the Empire than they 
could or would have done or dared, had they not 
been supported and encouraged by the affection and 
reverence they felt for their august mistress. 

I have introduced at this moment this brief story 
of the Queen's part in upholding the best traditions 
of imperialism, because chronologically it falls into 
place here, and because in telling it, I am able to 
emphasise and substantiate my contention that, how- 
ever much the imperial idea might have taken pos- 
session of men in the services, until the foundation 
of the Imperial Federation League in 1884 scarcely 
any prominent politician or statesman had openly 
associated himself with the imperial cause. Even 
before the Royal Colonial Institute was founded in 
1868, isolated statesmen, even statesmen in office, 
had occasionally referred, with such expression of 
mitigated enthusiasm as the occasion demanded, 
to the growing wealth and importance of our " de- 
pendencies," for that was the word most in favour 
in those days. The word is, of course, harmless 
enough, if properly qualified and understood, but 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 41 

it was not so qualified or understood by these 
speakers. As we have seen, neither the union of 
Canada in 1867, nor the attempted union of South! 
Africa in 1875 can be taken, save so far as Lord 
Carnarvon is concerned, to represent an endorse- 
ment of the creed that the Empire must remain one 
and indivisible in fact, and the fact is unpleasantly 
obvious, that the majority of these supporters of 
intercolonial federation regarded that policy as a 
means to the end most earnestly desired — the dis- 
integration of the Empire. 

We all know that the Imperial Federation League 
failed to accomplish the actual purpose to whicH 
it owed its existence, which was " to secure by fed- 
eration the permanent unity of the Empire." But 
its dissolution was due to the conviction of a ma- 
jority of its members that it had succeeded in the 
main purpose of its existence, in that it had made 
the cause it bore on its banner the cause of nearly 
every responsible thinker in England. It had done 
more. It was the means of compelling almost every 
statesman and politician of importance, to declare 
openly and solemnly his assent to the principle in- 
volved. That being so, and action being the prerog- 
ative of the men who sit in the seats of the mighty, 
nothing remained to be done, save to wait for the 
arrival of that psychological moment when aca- 
demic truths should be interpreted into vital facts. 
Since the League has been instrumental in getting 
the subject discussed from every point of view, and 



42 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

it neither aspired nor presumed to formulate a defi- 
nite scheme of federal union, but trusted rather to 
the gradual movement toward that end resulting 
from the steady growth of natural forces, it must be 
allowed that it had done its work. Its occupation was 
gone, and its continued existence might have led to 
mischievous results, since some of its members were 
endeavouring to force it to adopt a more concrete 
and aggressive policy. 

It canmot be denied however, that the Imperial 
Federation League centred and epitomised the fed- 
eral movement, or that during its nine years' life 
it Avas the active force, or rather contained within 
itself all the active forces making for federal unity. 
The present writer recalls that memorable occasion, 
the Conference held on the 29th July, 1884, at the 
Westminster Palace Hotel, at which the first steps 
were taken toAvards forming the Imperial Federa- 
tion League. It was attended by the High Com- 
missioner for Canada (Sir Charles Tupper), the 
Agent-General for the Cape (Captain, afterwards 
Sir Charles, Mills), the Agent-General for l^ew 
South Wales (Sir Saul Samuel), the Marquis of 
ISTormanby and several other ex-Colonial Governors, 
by Mr. W. E. Forster and Mr. W. H. Smith, both 
statesmen who had occupied important positions in 
former Cabinets. The first general committee of the 
League contained the names of some of the most 
distinguished men in England and the colonies, men 
renovmed in politics, the Services, in scholarship, 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 43 

and in letters and commerce. A few of these names 
taken alphabetically and almost at random will suf- 
fice to indicate that in 1885 Imperial Federation 
had already gained the support of many men of light 
and leading. The list included Sir Henry Barkly, 
Sir Algernon Borthwick (Lord Glenesk), Sir 
Thomas Brassey (Lord Brassey), Mr. James Bryce, 
Lord Brabazon (Lord Meath), Lord Brabourne, 
Professor Montagu Burrows, Captain Colomb (Sir 
John), Sir Daniel Cooper, Sir Charles Gavan Duffy, 
H. O. Arnold-Forster, Sir Alexander Gait, Viscount 
Hampden, Henniker Heaton, Sir Michael Hicks- 
Beach, Sir John Lubbock, Sir John Macdonald, 
the Duke of Manchester, the Hon. J. X. Merriman, 
Sir Lyon Playfair (Lord Playfair), Sir Rawson 
Rawson, Professor Seeley (Sir John Seeley), and 
Lord Tennyson. When, in 1893, the League was 
dissolved, it would be far easier to make a list of 
men of the first rank in the councils of the Empire 
Avho were not included in the list of its members, 
than to give the names of those who were. During 
its eight or nine years' life the League accomplished, 
as I have already indicated, great things. The 
journal of the League penetrated to the remotest 
part of the Empire, and members of the League 
ventilated its aims by speech and lecture in every 
town, I might almost say every village, in the 
United Kingdom. The colonies formed branches 
and took up the work, Canada being especially 
energetic. It is significant that the League met with 



44 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

considerable opposition in some of the Australian 
towns, while it made scant headway in South Africa. 
Assuredly all the missionary work it accomplished 
was needful, and assuredly it has brought forth 
fruit in abundance. I know from personal experi- 
ence how dim and dull the sentiment of attachment 
to the Mother Country had become in the case of 
a large proportion of the upgrowing colonists, both 
of the Cape and E'atal. I found young men, in some 
cases, men belonging to old, not to say historic, houses 
at home, absolutely devoid of this sentiment of at- 
tachment. It is to be feared that this feeling was 
largely engendered by the men England began to 
send in increasing numbers to her colonies, so soon 
as the era of big steamships increased the facilities 
for treating our so-called dependencies as dumping- 
grounds for damaged human goods. Here at home 
the belief that England was merely a foster- 
mother for young nations which would speedily leave 
her, was still the belief of Englishmen, especially 
in the provinces, among the class which troubled it- 
self to think on such questions at all. To this I 
can also speak from personal knowledge ; and I can: 
also testify to the change of view which a man oi 
energy, who took the trouble to inform the bucolic 
mind, was able to effect after a few months' lecturing 
and hammering at the subject. 

In this, and in countless other ways, the Imperial 
Eederation League fully justified its existence. The 
journal which recorded its work Jies before me in 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 45 

some eight or nine volumes. They are a mine of 
information and statistics; so rich indeed, that in 
renewing my acquaintance with them, I find myself 
confused by the amplitude of detail, all bearing on 
the question of how best to conserve and strengthen 
the ties which bind together Great Britain and her 
colonies. 

The Colonial and Indian Exhibition of 1886 was 
another potent agency making for the imperial 
idea, an object lesson so full of interest and attrac- 
tion that the most casual and indifferent Britisher 
could not fail to absorb something of its more esot- 
eric meaning. It was undoubtedly the most popu- 
lar of all the exhibitions held at South Kensington. 
Initiated in 1884 and organised by a Royal Com- 
mission presided over by the Prince of Wales, it 
contained among its members almost every promi- 
nent statesman from every part of the Empire. The 
beneficial influence this exhibition exercised over 
the popular mind is not to be exaggerated, l^ot 
only were the products of the Empire brought di- 
rectly under the notice of the people of Great 
Britain, but it is obvious that this evidence of as- 
tonishing growth and vitality operated on the mind 
of the civilised world, and prompted European pow- 
ers to enter upon that era of colonial enterprise 
which, although it has brought with it an increase 
of our immediate troubles and anxieties, will, I 
believe, in the final event prove to have had its com- 
pensations, for it has stimulated the colonies to 



46 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

healthy emulation ; brought home to the mind of the 
Motherland their value; and by making Europe a 
partner in the cause of world-wide civilisation, it 
has minimised the difficulty (not immediately, of 
course, I am looking at the ultimate issue) of deal- 
ing with the numerous perplexing problems involved 
in the humane and sensible treatment of aboriginal 
peoples. 

The Indian and Colonial Exhibition was not con- 
tented to educate through the medium of the eye 
alone ; almost every other day, if I remember aright, 
meetings were held in the Conference room and sub- 
jects of the highest imperial moment were discussed 
by men competent to elucidate them. The press 
took care to disseminate this knowledge through- 
out the length and breadth of the Kingdom, I might 
say Empire, and it is impossible to doubt that these 
meetings were educational media of the utmost 
value and importance. 

Then came the first Imperial Conference, sum- 
moned on the 25th I^Tovember, 1886, by the Eight 
Hon. Edward Stanhope, Secretary of State for the 
Colonies, in a despatch addressed to the Governors 
of all colonies under responsible government. This 
despatch, after referring to a passage in the Queen's 
speech which announced her conviction that there 
was a growing desire on all sides to draw closer in 
every practical way the bonds which united the vari- 
ous portions of the Empire, declared the intention 
of Her Majesty's Government to convene a confer- 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 4^ 

ence to deal with tlie matter in the early part of th^ 
coming year. This conference was held in April 
and May, and did excellent pioneer work, to which 
reference will be made hereafter. 

This year (1887), the year of the Jnbilee cele- 
bration of the Queen's fifty years' reign, gave a mo»5t 
powerful stimulant to the imperial idea. The spec- 
tacle of the revered Sovereign of these realms, sur- 
rounded by the representatives of a score and a half 
colonies, fostered sentiments of latent loyalty and 
accentuated such feelings where they were already 
dominant. Ten years later a far more striking ob- 
ject lesson was presented to the people of the Em- 
pire. The Queen celebrated the sixtieth year of her 
reign, and on her way to St. Paul's was accompanied 
by nearly all the Premiers of her self-governing 
colonies, and by contingents from the forces, native 
and colonial, of every dependency of the Crown. 
It is worthy of note that the colonial statesmen and 
troops, if Yv^e except the Queen and her family, 
proved to be the central points of interest in the 
whole procession, being acclaimed by the populace 
with great fervour and enthusiasm, which, while 
it exceeded the reception accorded to the British 
troops and to the royal and exalted personages rep- 
resenting every country in the civilised world, gave 
token to those who, not having watched the signs of 
the times, were unprepared for so convincing a reve- 
lation, that the man in the street, the humblest of 
the people, had caught the sentiment of Empire, 



48 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

and was, it is scarcely too much to say, as proud of 
the wide-world dominion of Her Majesty as any of 
the great administrators, statesmen and warriors 
who formed her immediate entourage. That the 
Queen had silently but surely worked to secure the 
permanence of the imperial connection, upon which 
so many of her Ministers had sought to put a period, 
has gradually become recognised by her subjects, 
and no doubt the recognition of this fact has had 
much to do with the wonderful growth of her per- 
sonal popularity, and in the attachment of the people 
to the monarchical principle during the last quarter 
of a century. The writer of these pages was a wit- 
ness, when a boy, of the Royal Procession to St. 
Paul's to offer' up thanks on the recovery of the 
Prince of Wales from the dangerous illness which 
threatened his life. Mingling with the crowd, many 
expressions, not only of mitigated loyalty, but of 
disrespect to the Throne, and even worse than dis- 
respect, fell upon his ears. In the summer of 1899 
he chanced to be caught up and detained by a crowd 
of workingfolk, who were waiting at Knightsbridge 
to see Her Majesty as she made her way to lay the 
foundation stone of the Victoria Museum at South 
Kensington. The expressions of good-will to the 
Sovereign, audible everywhere, were universal on 
the part of the populace. Over a quarter of a cen- 
tury had elapsed since the Thanksgiving Service, 
and during that time a remarkable change had come 
over the people. In 1872 loyalty to the Throne was 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 49 

for the most part of a conventional and perfunctory- 
order; but at the end of the century, the Queen has 
only to appear among her subjects, to be sure that 
the expressions of devotion to her person and her 
dynasty will be as sincere as they are hearty. 

I am aware that the novelty of this statement, 
so far as it indicates that the people were not always 
loyal, will induce nine in ten readers to challenge 
its accuracy. It has been so much the custom among 
historians and publicists to declare that the Queen 
has been universally popular throughout her long 
reign that, to make the assertion that she was njot 
entirely popular in 1872, is to defy a whole crowd 
of witnesses. Nevertheless, it is a fact. The seclu- 
sion of the Queen's life after she lost her husband, 
the Prince Consort, was resented by all sections of 
the people, pleasure-lovers, pageant-lovers and trades- 
men. But the matter lies deeper. It must be re- 
membered that it fell to the Queen to re-establish 
the monarchical principle as an active force in the 
political and social life of the nation; to rekindle 
loyalty in the national heart; she had in fact to 
give her dynasty, never before beloved, and during 
the reigns of her immediate predecessors infinitely 
despised, a place in the affections of the people. It 
would be idle to pretend that any Sovereign of the 
Hanoverian line was able to call forth that ardent 
spirit of loyal devotion which with a few exceptions 
our earlier monarchs, down to the Stuarts, were 

capable of evoking. The personal demerits of the 

4 



50 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

first two Princes of that line were not perhaps 
greater than those of the Stuarts, but apart from 
the fact that they lacked the qualities and graces 
which make vice acceptable, they were not our right- 
ful sovereigns; and while the descendants in the 
male line of those rightful sovereigns remained, 
loyalty to the Keigning House was perforce of a 
very feeble and opportunist order. The Jacobite 
party would have us believe that it is still of an 
opportunist order, and the contention would be, I 
think, perfectly logical and justifiable, but for the 
fact that the Queen by reason of her personal qual- 
ities, her devotion to duty, her magnificent services 
to the Empire, has re-created the monarchical senti- 
ment, and in doing so has really created a new 
dynasty, as individually and effectually as if that 
dynasty were in no way connected with Egbert, our 
first English King. 

Assuredly the immediate links which bind the 
Queen to that ancestor are base enough. George III., 
whose bigotry lost us America, George IV., whose 
licentiousness corrupted the nation, so that it was 
impossible for any man to retain his self-respect and 
at the same time to retain his respect for his King — 
William IV., only tolerable because he was many 
degrees less contemptible than his immediate pre- 
decessor, but sufficiently contemptible none the less. 
Had the conspiracy of the Duke of Cumberland 
succeeded, and had Ernest Augustus instead of 
Victoria Alexandrina succeeded to the Throne of 



GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 51 r 

Alfred, there can be little doubt that the newly 
enfranchised people would have made short work 
of the monarchy. Britons had had about enough 
of the Guelphs in the male line, and hailed with 
delight the prospect of breaking with the traditions 
of their reign. And break with them they did. The 
exemplary standard of conduct the Queen insisted 
upon being observed by her Court, and her devotion 
to duty, won first the respect of her people and 
finally their love; although of course, even before 
the death of the Prince Consort, she passed through 
periods of acute unpopularity. Perhaps there is 
nothing more creditable to the Queen as a woman, 
than the loyal manner in which she has cherished 
her husband's memory, and assuredly it was a mem- 
ory v/orthy to be cherished. The repugnance she 
feels to what the world calls pleasure was of earlier 
date than the Prince's death, thovigh this loss in- 
creased the feeling. But surely these traits and 
characteristics showed the Queen to be a woman of 
deep and correct feelings. It is objected that a 
Queen cannot allow her private sentiments to rule 
her conduct; but surely a Queen who had effaced 
herself so completely that she might conform to the 
Constitution, may be permitted to indulge her own 
standard of right and wrong in matters affecting 
her own personality and her own household. In 
any case that portion of Her Majesty's subjects 
whose business in life is pleasure, or to whom cater- 
ing to pleasure is business, resented the Queen's 



52 PROGRESS GF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

choice of a life of seclusion; and these strictures 
spreading downwards had in the end a damaging 
effect, resulting in the loyalty of the people growing 
more and more lukewarm, until the reaction came — 
and I think I may put the year 1886, when the 
Queen opened the Colonial Exhibition, as marking 
the date of that reaction — which has culminated in 
that intense feeling of loyalty to the Throne exist- 
ing everywhere to-day. It is a significant fact that 
the growth of this feeling, this reanimated loyalty 
to the Throne, synchronises with the growth of the 
imperial idea. The two are now co-existent and 
interdependent. It might have been otherwise. The 
imperial idea might have developed concurrently 
with the growth of republican sentiments. The 
Queen's personal qualities have prevented that de- 
velopment. Whatever may happen in the far away 
future, for the present there can be no doubt that 
the two sentiments of loyalty to the Throne and 
to the Empire are so intertwined and intermingled, 
that one comprises the other, and that one could not 
be sacrificed without sacrificing the other. 

I might, of course, continue this subject indefi- 
nitely. Many other causes and influences have con- 
tributed to the growth of the imperial idea, but 
they must be dealt with in the chapters to follow. 
At the end of the century the Greater Britain Ex- 
hibition at EarFs Court must be regarded as follow- 
ing up and, I might almost say, as completing the 
direct educational benefits of the Colonial Exhibi- 
tion of 1886. 



* GROWTH OF THE IMPERIAL IDEA. 53 

In spite of everything there still remains a certain 
small section of the people which cherishes the idea 
of isolation and dismemberment — the Little Eng- 
landers, as they are called to-day. For the moment 
their voice is hushed. The people of this Empire 
are engaged in suppressing an insolent revolt against 
the authority of the Queen in South Africa. Brave 
and loyal sons of Britain from the "United Kingdom, 
Canada and Australia, the Cape and [N^atal, have 
rushed to the standard of Old England, all bent 
on aiding in a contest which is proving itself to be 
one of great and, unhappily so far as official Eng- 
land goes, unexpected difficulty. As these difficul- 
ties increase, the voice of the Little Englander of 
the baser sort is heard once more in the land ; though 
silence has fallen upon the men who perceive now 
that it is too late, that they were powerful enough 
a few months ago to paralyse the arm of the Govern- 
ment, and that they are really responsible — though' 
the responsibility must be shared by the men who 
feared to do right lest their actions should be falsely 
represented — for the lamentable state of unprepared- 
ness to meet our enemies in which the nation finds 
itself to-day. 



54: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTEK IIL 

GROWTH IK AREA AISTD POPULATIOI^. 

At the end of the last century, the area of the 
British Empire outside these islands was a little 
over two million square miles, containing a popu- 
lation of something like 100 million souls. Mr. 
Montgomery Martin's tables show that it had an 
export trade of 30 millions and an import trade of 
25^ millions sterling, of which last trade 24 mil- 
lions were with this country; that is to say, as be- 
tween the colonies and the United Kingdom. 

When the century had run half its course the 
area of Greater Britain had increased to 4^ million 
square miles with a population of 130 millions and 
a revenue of 31 millions, of which, as Sir John 
Robinson, ex-Premier of ISTatal, pertinently re- 
marked in his luminous address on ^^ The Colonies 
and The Century" before the Royal Colonial In- 
stitute (May 9, 1899), India alone contributed 27^ 
millions. 

At the end of the century, and I take Sir Robert 
Giffen's figures, in that Sir Robert is the greatest 
authority on the subject, the Empire, including 
Egypt and the Soudan, contains upwards of 13,- 
000,000 square miles, with a population of about 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 55 

420 millions, in other words a fourth of the popula- 
tion of the world. Of this population more than 
50,000,000 are of the British race, including, of 
course, the inhabitants of the parent country. The 
remainder, according to Sir Robert Giifen, amounts 
to some 350 to 370 millions, but I seem to find 
in making the totals and consulting various author-, 
ities (I include 30 millions of Africans in Mgeria) 
that these figures are below rather than above the 
truth. The greater part of these millions are 
Asiatics and Africans, and it is of small importance 
to be precise as to the actual number, since in any 
case the proportion of the governing race to the 
subject races is roughly as stated by the eminent 
statistician already quoted; namely about one to 
eight throughout the Empire. 

It is commonly replied,, when our ancestors are 
blamed for saddling their descendants with an 
enormous National Debt, — a debt which weighs 
heavily upon the English people to-day, — that our 
colonies represent the asset side of the account. 
The contention has validity. It would be quite as 
near the truth however, to assert that we might 
have acquired all our colonies at a fourth, I might 
perhaps say a tenth, of the actual cost, because by 
far the greater portion of the expenditure represent- 
ing our ]^ational Debt, was squandered on useless 
and unproductive campaigns in Europe, which had 
only a remote tactical or strategical bearing on the 
conquest of the colonies. That is to say, had we 



56 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

diverted this money to our navy, and had we con- 
tented ourselves with attacking our enemies in their 
most vulnerable parts, or in other words, their colon- 
ies, we might have possessed ourselves of the colonicvS 
of Spain, Portugal, France, and Holland in their 
entirety, at a much less cost in men and treasure 
than we expended in acquiring a moiety of those 
colonies. Of course the matter admits of explana- 
tion. Professor Seeley says that the wars of the 
seventeenth century were really wars for the posses- 
sion of the !N'ew World — its territory and its trade. 
That may be true ; but none of the combatants were 
conscious of the fact, as I think I may have observed 
already. Great Britain in any case, cared compara- 
tively little for colonies, especially after the loss 
of America, for did we not relinquish to Spain, 
Prance, and Holland, or more properly to Prance, 
at the conclusion of the peace of Amiens, nearly 
everything we had won in the seven years' war? 
Prance, which of course stood for Holland as well, 
was to have Pondicherry, Cochin, lISTegapatam and 
the Spice Islands in Asia, the Cape of Good Hope 
and Senegal in Africa; Martinique, St. Lucia, 
Guadeloupe, Tobago, Curagoa, St. Domingo in the 
West Indies, and St. Pierre and Miquelon in Amer- 
ica. Prance gained other colonies at the expense of 
Spain and Portugal, and in addition to the other 
spoils of conquest, we were simple enough to give 
up to her those important strategic bases in the 
Mediterranean, J^alta, Minorca and Elb^. It 13 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 57 

true when accounts with Napoleon, or rather with 
the birds of prej who gathered about the carcase 
of his Empire, came to be settled, most of the coun- 
tries we had so gratuitously surrendered in 1802 
were restored to us, and have been held by us ever 
since, though some of them reverted to us earlier 
than 1816, the Cape, for instance, to which we re- 
turned in 1806. 

I mention this circumstance again, this inexplica- 
ble surrender to France when surrender was entirely 
uncalled for, since we were able to hold, and France 
was powerless to so much as attempt to take, in 
order to show that although the colonies are the 
only tangible asset Great Britain can set against 
the expenditure represented by the ^National Debt, 
it is a mistake to suppose we could not have acquired 
those colonies at an infinitely less cost. Again it 
is an error to imagine that we owe our colonies 
entirely to conquest. Sir John Colomb has said — 
he was writing in 1886 — " Our flag has been planted 
in territories by three distinct processes — conquest, 
cession, and settlement. . . . Those who think that 
the Empire means war, need to be reminded that 
out of eight and a half million square miles of 
British territory, only about one and a half million 
square miles have been directly acquired by war or 
by diplomacy. Some seven million square miles 
represent the proportion contributed to our Em- 
pire by the pursuit of peace. Industrial and Com- 
mercial progress has won for us seven-eighths of the 



58 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Empire." N'ow when Sir John Colomb spoke be- 
fore the United Service Institution some thirteen 
years ago, many territories which have now been 
incorporated into the Empire, bringing it np, as we 
have seen, to a total area of 13 million square miles, 
had not been added to it. Our position in Egypt, 
tacitly defined by the Anglo-Erench Convention of 
1899, was then merely a tentative position. The 
Charter under which l!^igeria was practically 
founded and developed, was only granted in 1886 
to the Royal ISTiger Company, and this Company, 
when it reached its final limits of political expansion 
at the beginning of 1899, added half a million 
acres to the Empire. In South Africa, in addition 
to smaller increases such as Zululand, that portion 
of it not taken by the Boers, three quarters of a 
million square miles were added to the Empire 
w^hen the country, which now goes by the name of 
Rhodesia, was annexed, irrespective of British Cen- 
tral Africa, which was proclaimed a protectorate in 
1891. In East Africa, Uganda, Witu and Zanzibar 
have fallen into the lap of the British Empire, and 
smaller crumbs of territory have been gathered in 
on the Indian frontier and in China. In point of 
fact, by one means and the other, the area of the 
Empire, including of course, territory under British 
protection, is just half as large again at the end of 
the century, as it w^as when Captain Colomb deliv- 
ered his memorable lecture in 1886. It would be 
difiicult, however, to determine how that authority 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 59 

would classify these additions. From one point of 
view almost all this territory has been acquired by 
conquest, incontestably so in nearly every case, 
though not as the result of successful conflict with 
European States. We have dispossessed native 
potentates, using for that purpose the arts of diplo- 
macy, and v/hen they failed, the arts of war. From 
another point of view it would be possible to main- 
tain that those territories were won by the pursuits 
and enterprises of peace, and to owe their existence 
to the national overflow of population. 

I scarcely know to which process we should as- 
cribe the possession of certain of our older colonies, 
since the process was in many cases a mixed one. 
^Newfoundland, our oldest colony, was claimed by 
us by right of discovery, but the navigators of 
other States disputed our claim, and the possession 
of the country was only confirmed in 1713 when the 
Treaty of Utrecht put a temporary period on one 
of those incessant duels with France which were 
the pastimes of our ancestors. The Windward 
Islands were acquired in 1605, and the mixed 
processes of settlement and diplomacy must be 
held responsible for their acquisition. Bermuda, 
settled in 1609, may be regarded as peacefully ac- 
quired. As to Canada, who shall decide? With 
the undying story of Wolfe^s brilliant victory over 
Montcalm strong in our memory, and the early 
conflicts with the Indians scarcely less firmly im- 
pressed upon the page of history, we are in some 



60 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

danger of forgetting those later records of peaceful 
extension and development, which dispute the claim 
of the warriors to the honour of adding the Domin- 
ion to the imperial domain. The Leeward Islands, 
Turks and Caicos Isles, the Bahamas, and Gamhia, 
were all peacefully annexed and settled between the 
years 1623 and 1631. St. Helena was occupied in 
1651. Cromwell, who was as truly an Empire- 
builder as Elizabeth herself, took Jamaica from 
Spain in 1655. The Gold Coast fell to us in the 
early years of his successor's reign, and beads and 
gewgaws, judiciously distributed to native chiefs, 
played a conspicuous part in its acquisition. We 
captured Gibraltar from Spain in 1704 and ac- 
quired Honduras by treaty in 1783 or thereabouts. 
Treaties procured for us the sovereignty of the 
Straits Settlements in 1785. l^ew South Wales 
and Victoria, our earliest colonies in Australia, date 
from 1787, and these and all the subsequent devel- 
opments of our authority in that continent, until 
we acquired the whole of it, may be regarded as 
territories gained by peaceful operations, though cer- 
tain awkward passages with the natives of that 
country ought to be set against this statement. 
Sierra Leone was ceded to us in 1795. We took 
Ceylon from the Dutch in 1795, Trinidad from. 
Spain in 1797, Malta from France in 1800, and 
British Guiana from Holland in 1803. Tasmania 
was settled in 1803. 

It will be seen then, that we had gained a footing 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 61 

in most of the countries, and in all the continents in 
which the colonies are now situated, when the cen- 
tury began; and that the vast extension of the co- 
lonial area which has marked the progress of the 
century, can only be regarded as the natural develop- 
ment of germ-colonies already in existence in 1801. 
The Cape of Good Hope, finally taken from Holland 
in 1806 (we paid for it in hard cash in 1815}, was 
merely the nucleus of Cape Colony as it at pres- 
ent exists ; which in its turn has been the parent of 
a far wider dominion, and although settlement aptly 
describes the method under which this vast area has 
been occupied, we have to place to the account a 
long succession of sanguinary wars with Kaffirs, and 
with the Boers, in estimating the factors which have 
contributed to its acquisition. The latest of these 
wars, and by far the most sanguinary, is at the time 
of writing confined to the Boers, but it is impossible 
to say what will be its limits, and what will be its 
results, though its upshot will probably be decided 
before the century closes. Even that is by no means 
certain. 

Heligoland, which we took from Denmark in 
180Y, we gave to Germany in 1890. This abandon- 
ment of British territory, it may be mentioned par- 
enthetically, with the exception of the cession of the 
Ionian Isles to Greece in 1864, after being held as 
a British protectorate for thirty years, and the ever- 
to-be-regretted Transvaal retrocession of 1881, are 
the only instances of British retrogression during 
:this century. 



62 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

We took Mauritius from France in 1810, obtained 
'Ascension by settlement in 1815, and Western Aus- 
tralia, tbe Falkland Islands and South Australia 
by like means in 1829, 1833, and 1836, respectively. 
As to Natal, it would be difficult to say whether 
that colony fell to us by conquest or settlement. The 
Boers were first in the field, though we claimed the 
territory earlier, and the Dutch had to be ejected 
by forcible means. Still this passage of arms was 
a very mild affair, thanks to the more spirited man- 
ner of dealing with Boer pretensions which then 
obtained, than had characterised the bearing of the 
Home Government to the Dutch on several earlier 
occasions, and until 1899 has characterised gener- 
ally its bearing to them since. Since then the colon- 
isation of J^atal (always excepting events transpir- 
ing at this moment) has been on peaceful lines, the 
brief episode of Langalibalele^s rebellion excepted. 
Aden was ceded to us in 1838. 'New Zealand can 
scarcely be regarded as falling under the category 
of colonies peacefully acquired, seeing that a suc- 
cession of most sanguinary wars with the Maoris 
accompanied its occupation. Hong Kong, though 
China relinquished it by treaty, was really con- 
quered in the first instance; indeed all our subse- 
quent acquisitions in the Celestial Empire may be 
regarded as conquests, inasmuch as China yielded 
to the menace of force which she knew she could not 
resist. The Labuan Islands were acquired by ces- 
sion from the Sultan of Borneo in 1847. Perim 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 63 

Island was finally occupied in or about 1856. Lagos, 
after a somewhat shuttlecock existence, was perma- 
nently occupied by Great Britain in 1861, when 
Docemo, the King^ ceded it to this country. The 
native chiefs of Fiji voluntarily made over this and 
the neighbouring islands to the Empire in 1874 and 
in subsequent years. Cyprus came to us in 1878 as 
the result of a secret deal with Turkey. In 1885-6 
we conquered Upper Burmah and extended protec- 
torates over Bechuanaland and Southern 'New 
Guinea. As to Bechuanaland, although its final 
addition to the British Crown was peacefully ac- 
complished, it was necessary to send Sir Charles 
Warren at the head of an imposing force before the 
Boer filibusters, who had occupied the country, 
would give way. It is only necessary to add that 
Ashanti, after a succession of wars, was finally 
brought under the control of Great Britain in 1896, 
when King Prempeh was subdued, and we have 
passed in rapid survey all the colonies of Great 
Britain which go to form the British Empire, and 
indicated the means employed in their acquisition. 

It will be seen that in most instances it has been 
necessary to use force either in the first or subse- 
quent stages of settling nearly all our colonies, in 
this as in previous centuries ; but that, since the con- 
clusion of the last war with France in 1815, force, 
where employed, has been employed almost exclu- 
sively against savage or primitive peoples, or against 
effete civilisations, Burmah and China, for instance. 



64 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

In recent years much has been spoken or written 
on the subjects of our inherent right to dispossess 
savage peoples of their lands, and I shall have to 
deal, if space allovrs, with the influences and tend- 
encies which have accomplished the growth of the 
Empire in this direction. We are scarcely at the 
end of these unpleasant necessities, for, although 
with due forethought and ordinary prudence, and 
presuming, of course, that certain possible ugly devel- 
opments in the progress of this South African war 
do not take place, there ought not to be any further 
serious trouble with the aboriginal peoples within 
the pale of the Empire ; at all events, for some time 
to come. The limits of our Empire are almost 
reached; in many directions they have become abso- 
lute and definitive by reason of the partition of al- 
most the entire area of the world among the civilised 
races of Europe and America. But as touching sub- 
ject races, of course it is impossible to say what may 
occur when these peoples have put on the outer crust 
of civilisation. Mr. Pearson's gloomy forecast is 
unhappily one that no thinking man, acquainted with 
this coming problem, can afford to ignore. 

One hesitates to make the statement at this mo- 
ment, since unhappily the continent generally is in 
high glee at the exhibition of our military ineptitude 
and War Office incompetence, which the very stub- 
born campaign in South Africa has discovered to 
the world ; but having regard to the enormous inter- 
ests at stake, and to the direct influence on war which 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 65 

the democracy, who have to pay for it with their 
lives, now exercise on national councils, it would 
almost appear that the risks of coming into contact 
with any of our old or new rivals in the field of 
colonisation, are growing less and less as the world 
becomes more and more disposed to settle its dis- 
putes without resorting to the arbitrament of war. 
One says it sorrowfully and in bitter humiliation, 
but after what has occurred so recently, it is not 
possible to feel as sanguine on this point as formerly. 
Europe has only to think we are powerless to hold, 
for her to attempt to take. I believe that the nation 
is determined to make a clean sweep of its betrayers ; 
the idle ones who have allowed it to drift into this 
position of danger; but that is a matter I must deal 
with in a later chapter. Assuming that matters are 
restored to the status quo ante heUum, as every Eng- 
lishman is bound to assume, and as I for one, rudely 
as one's confidence has been shaken, still believe ; and 
by this I mean, assuming that England regains her 
prestige as a power capable of meeting all comers, 
which obviously presupposes the complete defeat of 
the Boer Republics and their actual subjection — not 
merely documentary subjection — to the Empire ; then 
it may be assumed that the work of rounding off the 
Empire will continue unabated. It is in any case 
obvious that Portugal cannot much longer retain 
her feeble hold on what remains to her of that mag- 
nificent heritage which the genius of Prince Henry, 
and a score of mighty captains coming after him, 
5 



C6 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

created and transmitted to their descendants. It 
may happen, when this estate falls into the market, 
for it is certain to be a matter of purchase, there 
may unhappily arise occasions of dispute between 
the nations which regard themselves as the residuary 
legatees of that crumbling Empire. There is reason 
to believe that an arrangement has been come to be- 
tween two of the most deeply concerned and puis- 
sant of these aspirants, and that Germany and 
England in any case will not come to blows when 
that inevitable moment arrives, and Portugal finds 
that it is useless for her to continue to assume the 
role of an imperial power, and that she will best 
consult her dignity as the pioneer of colonial enter- 
prise by appealing to the record of her magnificent 
past, and by depriving her detractors of the oppor- 
tunity of making odious comparisons as to her 
present. 

As to England's nearest neighbour, Erance, that 
country has recently added enormously to her co- 
lonial possessions; and it is scarcely conceivable, 
after what .occurred in the spring of 1899 — ^the 
Eashoda incident — that she would venture to put 
herself in direct antagonism with the British Em- 
pire, unless indeed, our present sorry plight should 
deceive her as to our power, or unless the country 
should be committed once more to the charge of men 
so blind to the true interests of the people, as but too 
many Victorian statesmen proved themselves to 
be. These misguided statesmen are now gathered 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 67 

to their fathers. Among the responsible statesmen 
of both parties in the State who have arrived, or are 
about to arrive, there are, as has been proved, many 
who have neglected to do their duty by their coun- 
try in that they have permitted Englishmen to go to 
war unprepared with an enemy fully prepared ; and 
to suffer humiliating defeat from a province in re- 
volt, although ordinary forethought and intelligence 
would have rendered speedy victory a certainty. 
But it is to be hoped there are none who could so 
misjudge the temper of the people as to afford its 
rivals the opportunities with which they were gratu- 
itously presented by the Empire's administrators 
in the seventies and eighties. If I am right in these 
conjectures, and if I am right in believing that the 
nation is about to insist that the splendid resources 
and power of this Empire shall be speedily organised 
and made available, so that it may be ready to meet 
any emergency — for what occurred to us during the 
last months of 1899 was the fruit of over-confi- 
dence and neglect, not of any weakening in our fight- 
ing power as a nation — then I do not think France 
or any other power is likely to give the British Em- 
pire an opportunity of repairing past sins and negli- 
gences, and of rounding off her territories so as to 
exclude awkward intrusions of the foreigner in the 
midst of the various colonial groups, of substituting 
natural frontiers for artificial ones, thereby reliev- 
ing certain colonies and settlements of the annoyance 
of finding themselves enclaves^ surrounded on all 



68 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPlRlJ, 

sides by the settlements of parvenu powers- — par- 
venuSj that is to say, from the colonisation point of 
view. 

It must not be supposed that any colonial or im- 
perial party within the colonies of the British 
Empire desires that the foolishness of jealous rivals 
should precipitate a conflict which would afford 
this opportunity. Better these inconveniences than 
the deep damnation of war between civilised peo- 
ples. But the British Empire would be less than 
human and more than foolish, if she did not seize 
this opportunity should it be presented to her. I 
believe that should any nation or two nations at- 
tempt to take advantage of us to-day, when unhap- 
pily we are engrossed in a conflict made exceedingly 
diflicult by reason of all those faults and oversights 
at which I have hinted, and by reason, too, of the 
seven thousand miles which separate us from our 
enemy, she or they would still find that they had 
afforded us the opportunity of which I have spoken. 
The country has come to understand what is de- 
manded of its wide-world position, and Englishmen 
would not be sorry if the chance should present it- 
self of being " even," to use an expressive colloquial- 
ism, with countries which have treated us with such 
small consideration in the past, and have taken ad- 
vantage of our preoccupations elsewhere, and the 
dilatoriness and supineness of our statesmen, to steal 
a march on our preserves. 

In estimating the chances of the peaceful devel- 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 69 

opment of our various possessions in the future, 
especially our Asiatic and African possessions, 
there is another factor, and a most important one, 
which must not be lost sight of. I have not referred 
specifically to our Indian Empire in this chapter, 
because, so far as the issues under consideration are 
concerned, it is obvious that India has come to us 
almost entirely by conquest, and must be held by 
the same strong sword that won it. India is menaced, 
let rose-water politicians and sentimental doctri- 
naires say what they will, by a never-resting and un- 
scrupulous power, which assuredly, so soon as its 
convenience dictates, will try conclusions with us 
for its possession. That is a danger we members 
of the British family here in England, yonder in 
Canada and Australia, have to recognise. It is one 
which may come upon us at any moment, and woe 
betide us if we are found sleeping when it does come. 
It concerns the honour and greatness of the Em- 
pire as a whole, and already its outlying portions are 
showing their readiness, nay, their eager desire, to 
lend their aid in strengthening and manning the 
bulwarks of defence and assisting the Mother Coun- 
try in repelling the aggressor the moment he begins 
to put his designs into execution. It may be that 
a change will overtake Russian policy, and that she 
will abandon this design, a contingency as likely as 
that the extreme Irish faction will ever become loyal 
subjects of the Empire. At present Russia's mili- 
tary and civil rulers cherish the ambition of being 



70 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

masters of India as strongly as at any time during 
the century; throughout which they have sedulously 
and unceasingly pushed their outposts nearer and 
nearer to our frontiers. 

In Africa there is the danger that with the growth 
and expansion of nascent colonies under the control 
of various and, in all cases, not too friendly Euro- 
pean states; colonies whose boundaries are, in most 
cases, only defined by hard and fast longitudinal 
and latitudinal lines, friction may occur, and that 
this friction may lead to serious results. It may be 
possible hereafter to minimise these risks by judi- 
cious arrangements, readjustments of boundaries, 
and interchange of territories on the give and take 
principle, and that under such arrangements a 
greater measure of homogeneity may be secured for 
the colonies of the various states, colonies and pro- 
tectorates, into which the continent is divided. Apart 
from the misunderstandings and quarrels which 
may have their origin in the bureaux of European 
powers, there is the risk, a still greater one perhaps, 
that colonists themselves will precipitate disputes 
and foment quarrels with their near neighbours, 
Europeans under foreign flags ; quarrels and dis- 
putes which will not admit of being satisfactorily 
adjusted locally. 

In any case, so far as Great Britain in Africa is 
concerned, she finds herself exposed to all those risks, 
troubles and dangers arising from the boundaries of 
her various colonies being co-terminous with those of 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 71 

colonies under the flag of other powers, which her 
insular position has spared her in Europe. The 
endless disputes and wars of Europe have been due 
in no small measure to this contiguity of bound- 
aries. Erom these disagreeables Great Britain has 
hitherto been immune. 

Of course the same condition of affairs obtains in 
the American continent, since the Dominion of Can- 
ada and the United States of America are co-ter- 
minous. But no one dreams to-day that any kind 
of mishap will befall the relations of America and 
Great Britain in consequence of this territorial prox- 
imity. E^or need one anticipate as a foregone con- 
clusion, that trouble of this kind must arise in 
Africa. It is however, a potentiality of the future 
which it would be folly to ignore. Had there been 
aHy system, any forethought, in our progress we 
might have secured for our colonies in Africa, with 
the greatest ease, natural instead of artificial fron- 
tiers; indeed, as I have said elsewhere, we might, 
a quarter of a century or so ago, have excluded all 
rivals from such parts of the continent as we desired 
to settle and colonise. 

A greater risk to the peace of the world, though 
perhaps it scarcely falls within the scope of this 
work to discuss it, is discovered in the real or sup- 
posed ambition of France to make herself omnipo- 
tent along the African Mediterranean littoral. It 
is thought that she aims at joining her new colony, 
Tunis, to Algeria by annexing Tripoli, and to com- 



72 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

plete the coast line by adding Morocco to Algeria. 
It is held by many students of the trend of political 
ambition in modern France that the secret policy 
of her Chauvinists includes, or in any case included, 
Egypt in the scheme, whereby Italy would be men- 
aced, as well as Great Britain, and if it succeeded, 
the Mediterranean would be turned into a French 
lake. I mention this precious scheme merely to dis- 
miss it, for France knows that Europe would not 
tolerate its exploitation, nor has she under her pres- 
ent system of Government the stability which would 
favour such enterprises. 

It comes then to this, that, apart from contin- 
gencies and chances which we can anticipate or fore- 
see, and apart from those which we cannot anticipate 
or foresee, for I am presuming, as I am bound to 
presume, and I do so without belittling difficulties, 
that there is enough grit in old England yet to carry 
her through this present crisis, and that by the time 
these words are in print, she will have crushed the 
conspiracy of froward Africanders once and for all, — 
the outlook for the British Empire is more settled 
than at any time during the three centuries of its 
growth. The era of external advance and expan- 
sion will have come almost to an end with the absorp- 
tion of the Boer Bepublics. There will be no more 
worlds to conquer, and very little left to absorb or 
annex, unless it be China. A chronological coin- 
cidence, or accident, I may say, may bring this about 
at the end of the century; but, irrespective of this 



GROWTH IN AREA AND POPULATION. 73 

interesting accident, it is plain that the time has 
arrived when the British Empire must enter upon 
an era of internal development, and must bend its 
energies to organising and utilising the territories 
and their resources of which it finds itself possessed 
at the beginning of the twentieth century. 

It is, of course, no part of my purpose, nor does 
it fall within the scope of this work to speculate on 
the possibilities of the future, only so far at least 
as these possibilities are obvious, and need to be 
stated as imposing distinct limitations on the value 
of such progress as has been made. In this chapter 
I have thought it expedient to set forth some of those 
limitations which cannot be ignored, if we are to 
strike anything like an accurate balance between 
profit and loss. But I must not peer further into 
that vast vista which opens up to us as we stand on 
the threshold of the new century. I have endeav- 
oured to show how we became possessed of this 
boundless domain which is now the portion of the 
British section of the Anglo-Saxon race. It now be- 
hoves me to trace in broad outlines the details of its 
growth. 



74 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTEK IV. 

A CENTUEY^S COLOI^ISATION AI^D EMIGEATIOW. 

The attempt, were I so foolish as' to venture upon 
it, to determine as to how far the prosperity of the 
Mother Country has influenced emigration from it, 
and how far it has been influenced by a cause pre- 
cisely opposite, in other words, by distress at home, 
would encroach far too seriously on my space; it 
would in fact consume the whole of it. J^everthe- 
less, paradoxical as it may seem to say so, emigra- 
tion has not always been the outcome of straitened 
circumstances at home. The phenomenal emigra- 
tion of the Irish to America may be, it is true, 
attributed almost entirely to this cause, although a 
great deal of nonsense has been talked with the ob- 
ject of showing that the Irish left their home to 
escape the oppression of the Saxon; nonsense, I 
say, because the truth bound up in the statement is 
obscured by the grossly exaggerated manner of its 
presentation. Saxons were not answerable for the 
potato famine, and they did their best to mitigate 
its consequences. On the other hand certain move- 
ments of the people, notably such settlements as 
Rhodesia bj^ gentlemen adventurers, and these not 
younger sons only, may be looked upon as the out- 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 75 

growth of prosperous circumstances ; to have resulted 
in fact from an overflow of capital and the natural 
desire to earn for it a greater return than was 
possible at home. There I must leave the issue I 
have raised. It is obviously too full of complica- 
tions, contradictions and undercurrents to be pur- 
sued in detail. 

Until 1819 it cannot be said that emigration, as 
a means of relieving distress at home, was seriously 
entertained in this country. The idea was mooted 
earlier, but it was not acted upon until that year. It 
may perhaps, be said that since the successful effort 
to colonise the Eastern Province of the Cape of Good 
Hope in 1820, the Government of Great Britain 
has looked with a favourable eye upon emigration; 
though on the whole it has been sadly wanting in 
its duties in this matter; rarely going beyond a be- 
nevolent and altogether academic patronage of the 
movement. America (the United States) has, of 
course, always claimed the greater number of per- 
sons leaving these islands in search of better oppor- 
tunities in life. 

The emigration from the United Kingdom in 
1815 scarcely exceeded 2,000 souls. In 1820, the 
year of the famous Port Elizabeth settlement, the 
number of emigrants had risen to nearly 26,000. 
In 1830 this total was more than doubled, and 
nearly doubled again in 1840, when the figures were 
90,743, figures more than trebled in 1850, when 
they stood at 280,843. They were hi^^her still in 



76 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

1854, after which time they fluctuated violently, 
and are rendered confusing by reason of the large 
number of foreigners passing through Britain on 
their way to America and to Canada and the other 
colonies. These foreigners were included in the 
totals. It is stated however, that between 1815 and 
1880, inclusive, nine and a quarter million emi- 
grants left the United Kingdom, of whom over six 
millions went to the United States, and a number 
falling slightly short of three millions to the British 
colonies. It is, of course, with these last that we 
are mainly concerned, although it is interesting to 
note in passing, the enormous gain it would have been 
to the Empire if an effort had been made to attract 
those six million American immigrants to the shores 
of our own colonies, an effort which, so far as I can 
learn, was scarcely so much as attempted theoreti- 
cally, much less practically. 

Some years ago I verified some ingenious calcula- 
tions, though I cannot now remember to whom I was 
indebted for them, probably to the late Mr. de 
Labilliere, which went to show how enormously we 
had lost, as an Empire, by allowing our country- 
men to drift to the United States instead of to our 
own colonies. Taking the fifty years during which 
four millions of English folk had settled in Repub- 
lican America, and assuming that at the expiration 
of these fifty years these four millions were repre- 
sented by three million adult males, the gain to 
America is represented in money by the sum of 



A CMTURY'S colonisation ANt) EMIGRATION. Y7 

£525,000,000 annuallj, seeing that the average 
yearly production of every adult American is £175. 
The total, that is to say, the £525,000,000, contrib- 
utes 7 per cent, to the national revenue, or in other 
words, £36,000,000 annually. :Nrow all this wealth 
has gone to the United States, because America offers 
a double free market; that of the States themselves 
and that of England. Had England rendered her 
colonies immune from import duties, and judiciously 
taxed the produce of foreign nations, she might have 
retained most of this wealth, and the greater part of 
the people creating it, within the confines of her 
own Empire. Obviously, however, this argument 
is not to be taken too seriously. The British Em- 
pire across seas was not ready for the reception of 
this enormous influx of people; and the conclusions 
drawn above are not to be accepted without consid- 
erable reserve. Moreover, it is happily no longer 
profitable, save as an object lesson in how not to 
manage an empire, which may prepare the way for 
fundamental and wiser courses in the future, to 
dwell upon this lamentable instance of national in- 
eptitude. Indeed the political ineptitude of the 
British people, especially the inhabitants of the Brit- 
ish Isles, on all large matters of national concern 
has been so persistent and so colossal, that had we 
our deserts, we should be shorn of Empire alto- 
gether. As one studies minutely the annals of the 
century, our crass stupidity in managing our im- 
perial estates, and the marvellous way we have con- 



78 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tinned and prospered in spite of it all, almost compels 
one to accept the chosen-people doctrine. Surely a 
Providence has shaped onr ends, rough hewn them 
to our own disadvantage though we have. To-day, 
it seems to me, that the future of the British Empire 
is bound up increasingly with the future of that 
other vast section of the English race, a section 
which the late Professor Ereeman, taking his stand 
somewhat pedantically on the precedent of ancient 
Greece and her colonies, always maintained was a 
part of Greater Britain — the United States of 
America. 

If this be so, it is not merely because blood is 
thicker than water, but because a common language 
and a common literature, inculcating the same 
ideals and models of life and conduct, are thicker 
than blood. Eor the moment I must let this alluring 
" proposition '' pass. But it is something more than 
a mere academic proposition. It is based on substan- 
tial facts. It will have a distinct bearing, and as I 
hope and believe, bearing for good on the develop- 
ment of the world in the coming centuries. It is 
enough for my immediate pu^rposes to say, that it is 
not necessary for me to draw an arbitrary line be- 
tween the colonisation and progress of Republican 
America, and the colonisation and progress of the 
rest of the Anglo-Saxon world, because for me the 
progress of the British Empire would have abso- 
lutely no interest ; I should regard it in no sense as 
beneficent or healthful, did I not believe that it is 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 79 

a link in the chain of that universal federation of 
the races of the earth, which must inevitably follow 
upon the alliance of all Anglo-Saxondom. Anglo- 
Saxondom could not love its own desires and aspira- 
tions so much, loved it not humanity more. United 
Anglo-Saxondom will be in a position to enforce 
the abstract ideas of justice, peace and humanity, 
and to compel the rest of the world to accept them. 
The progress of the British Empire during the cen- 
tury has been stupendous, magnificent, what you 
will; but in nothing has its progress been so salu- 
tary, so real and so enduring, as in its progress 
toward the ideal of using its might to ensure for the 
whole world a common government, if not a common 
brotherhood. Against that, if it is held to mean 
the fusion of the black and white races, nature has 
set its eternal decree. 

From this altitude, the realm of dreams I may be 
told, it is necessary to descend to hard and dry facts ; 
the statistics of the displacement during the century 
(would that that displacement had been greater) 
of a certain section of the people of these over-popu- 
lated islands. The figures already given show the 
general trend of emigration during the first half 
of the century. The !N^orth American colonies have 
appealed in a peculiarly erratic manner to persons 
wishing to emigrate. In 1842, 54,123 immigrants 
arrived in those colonies; in 1847, 109,680. Dur- 
ing the fifties, sixties and seventies, Canada appears, 
so far as I pretend to understand the absolutely con- 



80 PROaRESS 0^ BRIl*I^H EMPIRE. 

tradictory statistics given by different authorities, 
to have received a very slight accession in the num- 
ber of its population from outside. The tables pre- 
pared by the Minister of Agriculture, discriminate 
so far as possible between immigrants who intended 
to settle in the Dominion, and those whose objective 
was the United States. In 1882 the numbers had 
risen to 112,458 and in 1883 stood at 133,624, Of 
course the building of the Canadian Pacific Rail- 
way, which was begun in 1881, attracted a great 
many settlers; especially as the Dominion Govern- 
ment offered liberal grants to bona fide colonists. 
Canada, by reason of the enormous extent of her 
area, particularly since the opening up of the I^orth- 
West Territories, has been able and willing to offer 
very liberal inducements to European settlers; 
though it cannot be said that these inducements have 
attracted anything like the population which one 
might have expected from their intrinsic advan- 
tages, and from the lavish way in which the offer 
and its advantages have been made known through- 
out the United Kingdom. A free gift of 160 acres 
is no inconsiderable one, and it is certain that men 
who have had the good sense to accept it, and the 
pluck and resource to utilise it, have accepted what 
has proved to be the nucleus of a comfortable com- 
petence, and often of fortune. 

The discovery of gold in British Columbia and 
the rush to Klondyke and Yukon have, of course, 
materially added to the number of newcomers; and 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 81 

no doubt Canada is on the eve of very great develop- 
ments. But some idea may be formed of the com- 
paratively small number of persons settling in 
Canada during the thirty years or so between 1850 
and 1881, by studying the census of the last of those 
years. Of every 1,000 persons then inhabiting the 
Dominion, 11 were born in the British Isles and 
possessions, 2 in the United States and 1 in other 
foreign countries, the remainder being natives of 
Canada. In 1898 the population amounted to 5 J 
millions, of which colonists of French origin num- 
bered 1,415,000, or 29.4 per cent. This was about 
the percentage of the French in 1881, so that it is 
clear that colonists of French origin increase more 
rapidly than the English colonists, who have in re- 
cent years received substantial additions from with- 
out. It is abundantly plain from these figures — 
at the end of the century Canada has about 5J 
million inhabitants — that the Dominion with its vast 
territory is still in its infancy. The area of Canada 
is larger than that of the United States, comprising 
3,610,207 square miles, or ten times the area of what 
was called Canada before the Confederation of 1867. 
Although the Dominion has not as yet fulfilled 
the expectations of many of its citizens, and of 
numerous philanthropic and public-spirited men of 
the United Kingdom (the names of Lord Meath, 
Miss Eye, Dr. Barnardo and Walter Hazell leap 
to the mind), that it should become the principal 
receiving house, so to speak, for our crowded-out 
6 



82 PROGREBS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

peoples, many efforts to this end have been made, 
though in a tentative and somewhat erratic manner. 
It is true there was once a department at the Co- 
lonial Office — it existed for about thirty years be- 
tween 1840 and 1871 — which superintended more or 
less directly the departure from this country, if the 
late Lord Carnarvon's figures were correct, though I 
can scarcely think they were, of between six and 
seven millions of emigrants. But during all these 
years, nothing was done by Parliament to assist 
emigration . by grants in aid, so far as the applica- 
tion of the principle of emigration as a steady sys- 
tem was concerned. 

During the Irish famine and other exceptional 
crises, aid was given. Also when the Irish Land 
Bill was passed in 1881 the Government was em- 
powered to raise £200,000 for emigration. The day 
when our colonies interested themselves pecuniarily 
or otherwise in immigration is long since passed. 
A short-sighted system of land alienation has 
blighted the fair prospects of all our colonies. The 
Home Government in granting representative in- 
stitutions, and finally complete autonomy to the col- 
onies, handed over to them respectively, unre- 
servedly and unconditionally, the lands belonging 
to the Crown; thus robbing the people of these 
islands of the fruits of the sacrifices made by them- 
selves, or in any case by their immediate and remoter 
ancestors, in winning these colonies, and of the only 
tangible asset to set against the twenty millions or 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 83 

SO which the inhabitants of these islands have to pay, 
interest on the National Debt, of which debt the 
colonies are the sole visible acknowledgment. Eng- 
lish statesmen were no more magnanimous in adopt- 
ing this course than they were in bestowing complete 
autonomy on the colonies, without taking the pre- 
caution to protect the home country against the im- 
position of duties on their products, by inserting 
binding clauses to that end in the constitutions 
granted. Since we had already adopted free trade 
ourselves, we should at least have bargained for 
differential treatment on the part of our colonies. 
However this may be, it was, I tliink, a great polit- 
ical blunder, and an injustice to allow the colonies 
to take undivided possession of a heritage, the Crov/n 
Lands, in which the children of the Motherland 
had unexhausted rights. But in adopting this course 
as in that other course, the British Governments 
responsible, V\^ere not guilty of anything so amiable 
as magnanimity ; their action was due partly to gross 
carelessness and lack of imagination; but more still 
to a premeditated intention on the part of most of 
the statesmen concerned, to prepare the way for that 
complete severance from the Mother Country which 
it was their aim to force upon the colonies. 

This ineptitude has had disastrous consequences. 
It has checked the growth of the Empire. It has 
put it into the power of small and retrograde bodies 
of men — selfish land monopolists, and equally selfish 
labourers, who wished to keep up the price of labour 



84: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

by excluding competitors — to shut the door in the 
face of fresh immigrants. This has been especially 
the case in the Australian group. 

It was necessary to say this much to explain 
why colonisation on a scientific basis, and immigra- 
tion on the simple footing of supply and demand, 
have received comparatively little stimulus from the 
various great groups of colonies, Canada excepted ; 
for Canada being a pastoral and agricultural coun- 
try with an enormous area of land awaiting develop- 
ment, has not incurred the reproach, to anything 
like the same extent, as Australasia and the Cape 
have. It is rather amusing to read in certain semi- 
official statements put forth by the colonies of ^ew 
South Wales and Victoria, that owing to the pros- 
perous condition of these colonies, no state assistance 
is now given to immigrants. And yet in Victoria, 
at all events, one class of immigrant is surely 
needed, seeing that although the disparity between 
the male and female population is gradually right- 
ing itself — in 1871, out of a population of 731,528 
souls, there were 401,000 males to 330,000 females, 
and in 1881, out of a total of 862,346, the males 
were 452,000 to 410,000 females— it still exists. 
Moreover, despite the fact that the greater part 
of central Australia is a hopeless desert, yet it may 
be said of the Australasian colonists generally, 
that they have scarcely touched the fringe of the 
vast continent which it is their manifest destiny to 
exploit; and although it is true that Australia pos- 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 85 

sesses all the elements of a self-sustaining popula- 
tion, it would be none the worse for a constant 
infiltration of new blood from Europe. Certainly 
there is no reason to suppose that Australia is in 
the position of the greater part of republican Amer- 
ica, which careful examination of data and statistics 
proves to be incapable of continuing, unless its peo- 
ples are constantly reinforced from Europe. Fam- 
ilies which receive no fresh blood from Europe be- 
come sterile. 

Meanwhile, to prevent misunderstanding, I ought 
to say here that Australia, despite local discourage- 
ment, receives a large, but fluctuating increase from 
Great Britain. Some of the younger colonies still 
encourage immigrants from Europe; but whether at 
the moment Queensland continues to do so, I am 
not quite sure. In any case Queensland has ex- 
pended three or four millions on this object since 
its detachment from ISlew South Wales in 1859. Its 
population has rapidly increased. In 1886 it ex- 
ceeded 325,000 souls, or thirteen times the number 
vof its inhabitants at the date of its foundation. At 
the end of the century its population amounts to 
about half a million. At the moment, owing mainly 
to the progress made in the gold industry, AVestern 
Australia is the most progressive portion of the 
continent; the other colonies having scarcely recov- 
ered from the financial collapse of the early years 
of the last decade of the century. 

Western Australia in common with 'New South 



86 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Wales, Queensland and Tasmania, directly, and 
with Victoria indirectly, owed its start- in life to 
convict labour. It is true its earliest settlement in 
1829-30 was due to an act of unwonted generosity 
on the part of the Home Government in offering 
liberal grants of land to settlers. It is a significant 
fact, that the lack of capital and organisation made 
these grants comparatively useless, a condition of 
affairs with which the student of early settlements 
under the free land grant system is unpleasantly 
familiar. It is still more significant that after 
about a dozen years of hard struggle against diffi- 
culties created by the lack of labour and lack of 
markets; the colonists actually petitioned the Im- 
perial Government to make the colony a penal set- 
tlement and for about twenty years shiploads of con- 
victs, amounting in all to two thousand prisoners, 
were sent into this part of the Australian continent. 
When the Imperial Government is blamed for con- 
taminating colonies with convict-labour, it is only 
just to remember this circumstance. It is true that 
this action on the part of the West Australians was 
greatly at variance with the attitude of Australian 
colonists generally, and with that of Cape colonists. 
At the Cape the Anti-Convict Association was 
formed in 1847 on the report that the Home Govern- 
ment intended to make the Cape a penal settlement; 
and the determined colonists succeeded in boycott- 
ing the " ISTeptune," which arrived in Simon's Bay 
in that year. This was about the time, or a little 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 87 

earlier, that Western Australia was begging for con- 
vict labour. As to this Cape trouble, in order 
tc save the convicts, and the officials in charge of 
them, from starvation, the Anti-Convict Association 
removed its embargo on the vessel; but they had 
carried their day, and a promise was extracted that 
the immigrants the Home Government wished to 
add to the population of the colony, should be taken 
back again. This promise was fulfilled. After all, 
as is so often the case, this fight, excellent as the 
Cape's position was in principle, was really a storm 
in a teacup. The convicts shipped on the " Nep- 
tune '^ were criminals only in the political sense, and 
they were to be utilised in the imperial work of 
building a breakwater at Table Bay. 

As to Western Australia, convict labour was not 
sent there after 1868. The prosperity of that colony 
dates from the assumption by Sir Frederick N^apier 
Broome of the government. This was in 1870. 
About ten years later, Sir Frederick is found de- 
claring Western Australia to be one of the few 
remaining parts of the British Empire in which, 
possessing ample territory and varied resources, 
there was an almost boundless scope for enterprise 
and settlement. Certainly Western Australia has a 
splendid climate and magnificent resources, and, as 
I have already said, its progress in recent years has 
been altogether remarkable. At the present moment 
its population may be a little over, or fall slightly 
under 200,000 souls. In 1884 it scarcely amounted 
to 33,000. 



88 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

The foundation of Southern Australia is interest- 
ing in that it owes its existence to a private colonisa- 
tion society founded on the principles laid down by 
Edward Gibbon Wakefield. The Wakefield system 
substituted the free granting of land for sales of 
land at prices regulated by the immediate circum- 
stances. When the sale was effected, the money 
resulting was to be applied to assist suitable im- 
migrants into the country, and in opening it up by 
public works, roads, canals, bridges, harbours and so 
forth. An excellent scheme, but not offering suffi- 
cient stimulus to the go-ahead sections of the 
British race, whose leading idea unfortunately is 
ever for personal aggrandisement, each man hoping 
to get a huge economic advantage over his fellow, 
and to compel his neighbour's labour for his own 
benefit. Socialistic, State socialistic colonisation, 
on the Wakefield lines, is worthy of all commenda- 
tion on principle ; but it has not been largely adopted. 
^Nevertheless, the stagnation resulting from dumping 
down settlers in Western Australia without labour- 
ers and without capital, may be regarded as the de- 
termining factor which decided the South Australian 
experiment. The South Australian Company was 
formed in 1834; but it was practically a Govern- 
ment affair. The actual terms under which the 
Board of Commissioners worked are worth record- 
ing. So careful was the niggardly Imperial Gov- 
ernment to protect itself against any possible loss, 
the act of settlement was not to become operative 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 89 

until £35,000 had been actually realised by the sale 
of land, of which £20,000 was to be raised by bonds 
to be invested in the British Funds, and to be held 
as a mortgage against any loss by the Government. 

It is no good blinking the fact that this experi- 
ment, and despite the mean way in which it was 
hedged in by the Home Government, it was a most 
laudable one, and formed on sound principles, did not 
succeed. It began well, but the first two Governors 
were unable to rise to the conception of the idea ani- 
mating it; and had neither the ability, tact, nor pa- 
tience to carry it out. The second Governor, Captain 
Gawler, expended money on public works for which 
he had received no sanction from the Home Govern- 
ment ; and he entirely vitiated the scheme in its very 
essence, by herding the colonists together in Adelaide, 
instead of spreading them over the country districts. 

It needed a man possessing the genius of admin- 
istration to put matters straight. Happily the hour 
produced the deliverer — George Grey, perhaps the 
most sane, capable, and — despite the cruel manner 
in which, as I have already shown, he was, on sub- 
sequent occasions, checkmated by Downing Street — 
the most successful pro-consul the British Empire 
has known during the century. Sir George Grey 
pulled the young country out of the slough of insolv- 
ency ; and set about providing it with means of com- 
munication. His good work, covering five years or 
so, was continued by his successor; and to-day the 
colony consists of nearly a million square miles, for 



90 PROGEESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the addition of the Northern Territory in 1863 
nearly trebled its area. With a population which is 
probably nearer 400,000 than 300,000 souls. South- 
ern Australia is by no means the least important 
or prosperous portion of Her Majesty's domains. 

'New Zealand owes its origin as a British colony 
to the same germ, the enterprise of a private coloni- 
sation and land company, as South Australia. Lord 
Durham, who showed himself so keenly alive to 
the value of colonies during his tenure of the Gov- 
ernorship of Canada, placed himself, in the first 
years of the Queen's reign, at the head of a body 
called the ISTew Zealand Land Company. This was 
in or about 1839. This company employed agents 
with large funds at their disposal, to purchase land 
from the natives ; and here it may be noted that the 
settlement of New Zealand, apart from the ine\d^ 
table war and confiscation consequent upon the bad 
faith and insurrection of native chiefs who had 
made over their private or sovereign rights to Groat 
Britain, was accomplished by purchase, and not by 
conquest. The Home Government disliking, as 
every home government of the first three-quarters 
of the century did dislike, anything tending to in- 
crease the extra-insular responsibilities of the King- 
dom, tried strenuously to nip this young colony in 
the bud; but in the end the force of circumstances 
was too strong for them, and in 1840 they sent out 
a consul. Captain Hobson, with instructions to do 
what was needful. Captain Hobson found that the 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 91 

settlers, to use a current expression which is sanc- 
tioned by its strict applicability, had been " going 
it strong." They had acquired a great deal of land 
in the E'orth and South Islands, and had established 
a centre at Wellington; but they had made it con- 
venient to forget that they were subjects of the 
Queen, and that they were dealing with land under 
the implied sovereignty of Her Majesty, if that sov- 
ereignty had not then been technically proclaimed. 
It is impossible to censure this conduct severely, 
considering what sort of support and encourage- 
ment British colonists had be'en taught to expect 
from the Colonial Office ; but it is fortunate that Con- 
sul Hobson had a proleptic eye, and that having such 
vision, he promptly nipped this nebulous republican- 
ism, to use Mr. Rhodes^ term, in the bud — a nebu- 
lous republicanism which, showing itself about the 
same time in another land, was allowed to go un- 
checked, and has worked in consequence prodigious 
mischief. 

In June, 1840, the settlement — by this time the 
Maoris had formally acknowledged the supremacy 
of the Queen of England — was elevated into a col- 
ony under a charter. The 'New Zealand Company 
did not relinquish its prerogatives, actual, or as it 
seemed to them, actual or implied, without a strug- 
gle. Sir George Grey, promoted from South Aus- 
tralia, arrived in 1845, and worked wonders for the 
nascent colony; while it must be accounted to the 
credit of another stalwart among the emancipated, 



92 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

liberal-minded and far-seeing Imperialists, the late 
Edward Gibbon Wakefield, that New Zealand 
achieved its full autonomy in 1856, within, that is 
to say, seventeen years of its first settlement. 

Wakefield foresaw, as Grey foresaw, that the 
growth of colonial responsibility, properly directed, 
meant the growth of the Empire, and 'New Zealand 
has proved itself a most valuable appanage of the 
Motherland, and is now doing the home country the 
service of putting into execution all or nearly all 
those schemes for social regeneration and progress, 
such as woman suffrage, old age pensions, and a score 
besides, which have been advocated for years in the 
United Kingdom, but which at present the Britisher 
at home has been afraid to venture upon. Splendid 
object lessons as to their soundness are now being 
gratuitously offered us by the colonies, l!^ew Zealand 
in particular. During the greater part of her exist- 
ence, the colony has been favourable to immigration, 
especially of British subjects, and has in the past 
assisted it liberally; so that to-day New Zealand has 
a white population, almost exclusively British in 
origin, of nearly three-quarters of a million souls, 
to which about 40,000 Maoris and a few thousand 
Mongolians must be added. In every respect, in 
climate, physical conformation, people and institu- 
tions. New Zealand has a right to consider herself 
as being as near an approach to Great Britain's 
double as any of Her Majesty's colonies. There is 
one deplorable circumstance however, which makes 



A CJENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 93 

one anxious for the future. 'Next to France, and 
apparently for the same reasons, the population of 
!N^ew Zealand increases from within itself less 
quickly than any country in the world. Disappoint- 
ing as the fact is in itself, it is more disap- 
pointing still, seeing that the colony has ceased to 
encourage immigration. 

The nucleus of Tasmania's earlier population was 
derived from the forced deportation of convicts; 
and at the beginning of the century these were cer- 
tainly of the most desperate character; the suppres- 
sion of bushranging being the most important work 
to engage the energies of successive Governors. In 
1841, the system of deporting convicts to the main- 
land of Australia was discontinued; and only re- 
vived about twenty years later in Western Australia, 
as we have seen, at the request of the settlers of that 
colony. After the cessation of the system altogether 
in ;N"ew South Wales in 1841, Van Dieman's Land 
became the dumping-ground of a whole mass of Great 
Britain's worst criminals ; and the system continued 
until 1853, during which time the unhappy little 
island, which, by the way, had freed itself, by means 
fair and means foul, of another undesirable human 
factor, the native element, was compelled not only to 
receive the recrement of these isles, but (and I am 
feign to confess this is an indelible blot on Great 
Britain, and as glaring an instance of cynical selfish- 
ness as the annals of the most autocratic system of 
government affords) to pay for the additional police 



94 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIREJ 

and gaol accommodation necessary for the control and 
reception of these convicts. An almost incredible 
story, but unhappily too true. Notwithstanding this 
outrage, for outrage it was, Tasmania has survived 
and obliterated, as all the Australian colonies have, 
the taint of convict blood. The better elements have 
absorbed or pushed to the wall these — for the most 
part, though by no means invariably — undesirable 
human factors, and Tasmania to-day is an orderly, 
prosperous and contented community of some 200,- 
000 souls. 

The Fiji Islands, like many other countries ruled 
over by savages, were repeatedly offered by their 
lawful chiefs to the English Crown; but until 1874 
these offers were steadily declined. The dilatory 
conduct of Downing Street, and its evident disin- 
clination to meet the wishes of the Australian col- 
onies in the matter of !N'ew Guinea, led at last to 
Queensland taking the initiative, and annexing the 
island on its own responsibility. This raised the 
curious question as to whether a colony was justified 
in extending the Queen's dominions in its own 
waters, so to speak, without the direct sanction of 
Her Majesty's Government. The question was, of 
course, very properly decided in the negative; for 
the recognition of such a right on the part of colonies, 
would have committed the Home Government far 
too seriously; it would, in fact, have given the col- 
onies the attributes of entirely independent states, 
and could not but have had a disastrous effect in 
weakening the imperial idea. 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 95 

^Nevertheless the irritating indifference of Great 
Britain to the vital interests and dearest wishes of 
colonists, and to the wider interests of the Empire, 
must be held to be sufficient excuse for the course 
pursued by Queensland. As Sir Graham Berry 
forcibly pointed out in addressing the Royal Co- 
lonial Institute some years ago, it is of supreme im- 
portance to a growing power like Australia, that the 
Empire should acquire the islands which surround 
her, seeing that the intrusion of European powers 
with navies into the waters of the Pacific, brings 
disturbing political elements and potential dangers 
to her door; while the use some of these powers, 
France for instance, make of these islands — stations 
for imperfectly guarded criminals of the most des- 
perate character — constitutes an ever-present menace 
to her social well-being. 

The history of the British Empire is one long 
record of the persistent neglect, and contemptuous 
dismissal on the part of the Home Government of 
the counsels of responsible persons in the colonies. 
The elected representatives of the colonists, and 
more often still, the accredited agents of Great 
Britain, have tendered the sagest advice to Downing 
Street, based on knowledge and experience, only to 
find that their warnings and pleadings fell on deaf 
ears. Thus the procrastination of the Home Gov- 
ernment led, in the case just referred to, to the in- 
trusion of Germany into the island. The more the 
pity. The same thing happened, as I have already 



96 PROGRESS O^ felllTlSH EMPmg. 

remarked, and I personally can claim to have been 
among the pleaders- and monitors, in Africa. Ger- 
many snapped up Damaraland under our very 
noses, though Prince Bismarck deliberately said he 
would respect our claim to it, if seriously put for- 
ward. If one of the political dreams of my life, 
Anglo-German alliance, should fall foul of accom- 
plishment, we may have to pay bitterly for these 
criminal negligences in the future. 

As to ]N"ew Guinea and the other islands of the 
Western Pacific, although they show considerable 
promise 'as settlements, they are not likely, at all 
events while territory so much better fitted for Brit- 
ish colonisation is practically unexploited, to become 
colonies in the true sense. That they have consid- 
erable intrinsic as well as strategical value. Lord 
Stanmore, and other Government servants who have 
been called upon to administer them, have again and 
again testified, l^either, perhaps, are !N"orth Bor- 
neo and the settlements of the Asiatic Archipelago 
of great value in themselves. In fact all our Indian 
and Asian possessions, the islands in the Indian 
Ocean, the Gulf of Aden, in the Southern Atlantic, 
the Mediterranean and the West Indies, must, with 
the possible exception of Mauritius, be looked upon 
as dependencies, held for humane, commercial or 
strategic purposes, but not destined in any large 
degree to be peopled by the English race. 

Nor is it to be supposed that at any time East 
Africa or West Africa can support a large British 



A CENTURY'S COLONISATION AND EMIGRATION. 97 

or, for that matter, European population. British 
colonisation and emigration during the century, has 
been mainly directed to North America, Austral- 
asia and South Africa, and this is likely to con- 
tinue to he the case. These three great divisions of 
the Empire, if we exclude India, the greatest and 
most important divisions into which it falls, afford 
the people of our race, scope for development as per- 
manent hereditary settlers. It is not possible to rear 
families successfully in India, scarcely possible in 
the West Indies; while it may be doubted whether 
any part of equatorial Africa will be found suitable 
for colonisation in the true sense of the word. 

The case of South Africa is different. So far 
as I can pretend to the gift of prophecy, I would 
say of Africa, especially the sub-continent, the sub- 
tropical area, that it is to the Victorian era and 
thereafter, what America was to the Elizabethan 
era and thereafter. Further, I regard South Africa 
as the key of the Empire. I shall enter more fully 
into the story of its development than the scope 
of this work permits me, in the case of the sister 
colonies. Africa supplies the very best example of 
State-colonisation of the century; while the devel- 
opment and progress of Rhodesia is perhaps the most 
interesting page of colonial history written during 
the century. Eor obvious reasons I delay this page 
until the latest moment of sending this work to 
press. 
7 



98 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTEK V. 

THE century's progress TOWARDS IMPERIAL UN^ITY. 

I THINK one is justified in the assumption that all 
this expansion of our race, this marvellous extension 
of our dominion, has no attractions for the think- 
ers among us merely because it adds glory to our 
flag and prestige to our history; nor do the serious- 
minded value our progress as affording us an oppor- 
tunity to look down upon the nations of the earth as 
superiors in strength and renown. We value these 
advantages because we mean to use this strength 
and renown for the ultimate benefit of the whole 
world. It is to be hoped we are sincere in this in- 
tention; it is to be hoped that it is not a presump- 
tuous one. In any case, if this is not our hope and 
our intention, then the titles and insignia blazoned 
upon our banner, are but the marks of the beast ; and 
our progress is a thing condemned and accursed. 

It is impossible in this not to sympathise with the 
noble sentiments, noble though complicated by tire- 
some pedantry, and loudly-advertised scholarship, of 
the late Professor Freeman. But Freeman, led 
away by the intellectual pride which caused him to 
labour the comparison he sought to draw between 
the colonies of Greece and those of Great Britain, 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 99 

wearied his audience with conclusions and deduc- 
tions which were in no sense applicable to hard and 
fast, work-a-day facts now confronting practical 
statesmen. 

The Empire which has absorbed whole continents, 
taking in as subjects numerous Europeans not of 
English origin, as the Erench in Canada, and the 
Dutch in South Africa; dominating vast aborig- 
inal peoples, the Hindoos and Mussulmans of India, 
the Ked men of Canada, the Kaffirs and IvTegroes of 
Africa, the Maoris of ISTew Zealand, is, by its very 
constitution, on a different plane from the colonial 
commonwealth of Greece. The friendship between 
Corinth and Syracuse, between Greek metropolis 
and Greek colony, may or may not have been nobler, 
all things thrown into the balance, I am not sure 
that it was, than the friendship between London 
and Montreal, London and Melbourne, London and 
Cape Town; but as the union v/as different in its 
constitution, so was it feebler in its capacity for en- 
durance. The tie did not insure permanence to the 
Greek Commonwealth, or to anything Greek, save its 
literature and its art, the best parts of Greece, I al- 
low; but we are dealing now with political forces, 
and not with forces which, operative over the minds 
of the cultured few, are cosmopolitan and non-na- 
tional in their character. As political forces, the lan- 
guage and institutions of Greece are dead. The very 
race has disappeared from the face of the earth. Mr. 
Ereeman tells us in effect that the tie between 



loo PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

mother and daughter, here in the British Empire, 
is of coarser texture than the tie which bound 
the Greek Eepublic together. But it is plain 
that it was not so much the actual tie which dis- 
pleased him in regard to the British Empire, as the 
name. And assuredly the Commonwealth of Eng- 
lish peoples would be a far more appropriate name 
for a confederacy of England and her colonies, than 
a title in which the word Empire, or any inflexion 
thereof, appears. The term Imperial does somewhat 
justly describe, even on pedantic grounds, the present 
relationship between Great Britain and the colonies, 
since the latter are now exposed to the risk of being 
involved in wars in the making of which they have 
had no voice. There is a certain inconsistency in 
using the term Imperial Federation for a change in 
our constitution which should relieve the colonies of 
this uncomfortable state of affairs. But this end 
may be gained without founding, as Mr. Ereeman 
wished to see founded, the United States of Austral- 
asia, the United States of South Africa, and so forth, 
apart from and independent of the Kingdom of 
Great Britain. The affiliation of the colonies under 
the Crown of Britain in some form of close alliance, 
is a consummation devoutly to be wished ; and I con- 
fess that years ago I set forth in a review the opinion 
that a permanent alliance, offensive and defensive, 
between Great and Greater Britain, might possibly 
prove to be a more feasible solution of the unity 
problem thau a hard and fast confederacy,. But 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 101 

neither solution Is likely to be brought about so 
speedily or effectually by first severing the tie be- 
tween England and her colonies, as by drawing it 
closer. In any case, a permanent alliance between 
America and Greater Britain, will be rendered 
easier, more possible in every way, when the politi- 
cal bonds between Great Britain, Canada, Austral- 
asia and South Africa are clearly established and 
defined. Why Mr. Freeman and his school should 
set up the Greek model as exemplary, it is difficult 
to comprehend, seeing that with all its virtues the 
Greek system had not the virtue of permanence, nor 
could such a system ever possess the elements of 
permanence. Mr. Freeman himself emphasises the 
vast differences in the processes of Greek and Euro- 
pean colonisation; and having admitted them, some- 
what inconsistently deplores the fact that the 
development of the British Empire has not followed 
the lines of the development of the Greek colonies. 

The growth of the British Empire, from its small 
beginnings in Kent and Sussex until to-day, has been 
uncertain, wayward, and seemingly accidental. It 
has been a long series of making and unmaking, pull- 
ing up and replanting, patching and mending, adopt- 
ing means to ends as the necessities became urgent; 
but never, either so far as the development of its con- 
stitution or the continuity of its policy goes, has 
there been any sort of consistent or uniform growth. 
Every attempt to round off our institutions so as to 
make them accord with theories, beautiful academ- 



102 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ically as models, but insusceptible of adaptation 
to tbe varying, contradictory, and elastic necessities 
of the composite peoples inhabiting the British Em- 
pire, has proved abortive. Imperial Federationists 
long ago recognised that their efforts must stop short 
at teaching the necessity of preserving the essential 
unity of the Empire, and helping every influence or 
movement which tended in that direction, and that 
the attempt to force the pace, anticipate, that is to 
say, national processes, would inevitably retard those 
processes, and might possibly have the effect of bring- 
ing the cause itself to ruin. A federal union which 
would, for instance — I am speaking, of course, of 
the days before the war — take in the independent 
Orange Free State, and the quasi-independent South 
African Republic — ^would require for its accom- 
plishment, a great deal of tact, compromise, and the 
departure from any cut-and-dried scheme or pre- 
arranged system wherein the component parts of the 
Empire took their places according to an arithmet- 
ical and precise formula ; while any alliance, however 
loosely framed, which embraced the whole of Anglo- 
Saxondom, would have to come about by gradual 
processes, as I believe it is coming about. Il^either 
the unity of the British Empire, nor the unity of 
Anglo-Saxondom can be arranged on lines which 
would give to the structure that symmetry and homo- 
geneity of which the makers of paper constitutions 
dream: those impatient doctrinaires who vainly 
imagine a fond thing when they conceive that the 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY 103 

peoples of the iinglo-Saxon race will ever consent, 
save in a case of dire emergency, to a drastic and 
radical change in their respective constitutions. So 
far as Great and Greater Britain are concerned, by; 
slow evolution the change will be effected, so as to 
transform our sectional Imperial Parliament into an 
assembly to which the colonies will send representa- 
tives. I^or will the transformation mean that Great 
Britain will cease to rule in her own home: as Mr. 
Freeman supposed. It will surely come about, de- 
spite the banter and enmity of such men as Free- 
man in England, Goldwin Smith in Canada, J. X. 
Merriman in South Africa; men who have to the 
full the vices of their virtues: the besetting sin of 
the academic mind which persists in viewing the 
future solely as a reflex of the past, forgetful of 
Hamlet's sage admonition to Horatio. 

The entrance of France and Germany into the 
ranks of colonial powers, to be exact I should say 
the re-entrance of France, has — and this should be 
apparent to the dullest wit — rendered the essential 
conservation of the British Empire a national neces- 
sity, not only for the metropolis of that Empire, 
but for each of its provinces, unless indeed England 
would regard complacently the absorption of those 
provinces by one or the other of these powers. The 
still less foreseen departure of the United States of 
America from the policy Washington imposed upon 
the nation he founded — a policy which obliged her to 
remain stationary as to territory, within the bound- 



104 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

aries of tlie ISTorth American continent ; her assump- 
tion, that is to say, of imperial responsibilities in 
Cuba, Porto Eico and the Philippine Islands — ^proves 
conclusively, that since the discovery of the 'Ne^Y 
World, empire-making has imposed itself as a neces- 
sity upon all virile and progressive peoples. Great 
Britain has hitherto been the most successful empire- 
maker: because she has been the most virile nation- 
ality. The converse, not to push instances further, is 
proved by the case of Spain and Portugal; in fact 
at the moment it would ill-become me to push in- 
stances further. So long as Spain and Portugal 
were virile, they possessed powerful colonies; the 
decay and loss of which have been coincident with 
the decline of the Kingdoms of the Peninsula. 

The growth in the imperial sentiments of the 
British race in the United Kingdom and in the col- 
onies, has been so marked during recent years, that it 
has practically converted, or at least silenced, most 
of the so-called Little Englanders at home, and the 
Republicans and Separatists in the colonies. This 
growth has been due not merely to the national and 
inherent forces from within making for imperial 
unity, but from the reluctant admission of all but 
the most prejudiced and stubborn of its opponents, 
that we live in an era of imperial expansion, when, 
as I have said, all the growing races are seeking to 
extend the area of their boundaries, and the scope of 
their influence. It is tardily recognised that for us 
:who, if not the pioneers of imperial colonisation^ 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 105 

'Have for a century been its advance guard; to turn 
our back on our work would not only be to abdicate 
our position as the leaders of the progress and civil- 
isation of the world, but it would be a symptom of 
approaching decrepitude and senility too unmis- 
takeable to admit of a doubt of the doom awaiting 
us. Sir Robert Giffen is among those thinkers who 
had no natural love or enthusiasm for Empire. He 
admits that if he had a free choice, he would have 
deprecated the acquisition of our own Empire. But 
he adds pertinently : " We are in for this great Em- 
pire; and there is an end to the matter. Even if 
we dislike it, we must make the best of our po- 
sition." 

Of course it was easy for so skilful a writer as 
Professor Ereeman, to cast ridicule on imperial 
federation, and imperial federationists. Let it be 
allowed that the term — imperial federation — is in- 
defensible from the pedant^s point of view. The 
scheme itself, if taken in the precise and old-maid- 
ish way in which Professor Ereeman insisted • on 
taking it, is no less indefensible. Eor the sake of 
consistency to a phrase, no sane federal unionist 
could dream of advocating the admission of the 
Indian peoples into the Imperial Parliament. The 
tenure of India rests on conquest; so of course 
did our tenure of Canada ; and so will our tenure of 
South Africa, when we have reconquered it. But 
the inhabitants of India were never a self-governing 
people ; nor were the aborigines of Africa. Iri 



106 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

India and in Africa it should be obvious that 
the only people who would have any claim to 
admission into an Imperial Assembly, would be 
men of European race belonging to the governing 
classes. The fact that British South Africa, a con- 
siderable part of it, has committed the egregious 
error of giving the suffrage to natives under certain 
conditions — far too easy conditions, be it said, even 
were the principle itself capable of being defended 
— cannot be cited as a reason why the whole na- 
tion, the Empire, that is to say, should repeat the 
error of certain of her colonial offspring. It is 
of course, undeniable that difficulties of principle 
have to be surmounted before any scheme of im- 
perial unity can be carried into effect; but these 
difficulties are not insuperable. The physical diffi- 
culties in the way of union have been entirely re- 
moved by the scientific progress of the century which 
has obliterated space: telegraphic communication 
and steam locomotion. Physical difficulties do not 
stand in the way of the admission of colonial repre- 
sentatives to the English House of Commons; nor 
do moral difficulties, seeing that England has for a 
century meekly endured that it should be in the 
power of the Irish members to control, or in any 
case hamper her internal affairs, and in a large meas- 
ure her foreign affairs, and this, too, at critical 
junctures in her history. This being so, she need 
scarcely fear the addition of what at first would be 
a mere handful of colonists to the Assembly at West- 
minster.] 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 107 

I am not however, called upon to deal here witli 
the intricacies of this question, so far as its future 
is concerned; but it is incumbent upon me to record 
what actual progress in fact, and progress in the ac- 
ceptance of the principle of federation, has been reg- 
istered at the end of the century. I must however, 
guard against being misunderstood in what I have 
written. During the last two decades I have dealt 
with the question of federal union in scores of lec- 
tures and articles; and at no time have I failed to 
point out that federation must be associated with de- 
centralisation, and that no more haphazard scheme of 
pitchforking a few delegates into the British Parlia- 
ment, would meet the ultimate requirements of the 
case ; though it might serve as a temporary measure. 

It may be said at once then, that the objections 
of such men as Professor Freeman, based as they 
were on purely academic grounds, have had no 
weight with the people of Great and Greater Britain, 
who, once having grasped the idea that imperial 
unity is a necessity of national existence and well- 
being, are not likely to trouble themselves unduly 
because in giving effect to this idea, some sacrifices 
on both sides will have to be made, and great diffi- 
culties, as to ways and means, will have to be 
surmounted. The various suggestions which have 
passed under my notice for effecting this end, are 
one and all — and their name is legion — open to 
criticism and objection. It may be, as I have before 
hinted, that existing institutions at home and in the 



108 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

colonies will remain unaltered, and that tlie repre- 
sentation of the colonies will be effected by increas- 
ing the powers (when the various colonial groups 
are interfederated among themselves) of the high 
representative of each group, or in other words by 
giving their representatives seats in the Cabinet. 
This form of representation I confess seems to me 
to be the most feasible of any form: at all events 
so far as present necessities go. I take it that the 
Australian colonies, when they finally become welded 
into a Dominion, as Canada has been welded, will 
be represented by a functionary for the entire group, 
an office which would rank with that of the High 
Commissionership of the Dominion. I refuse to 
contemplate any other ultimate issue for the South 
African colonies and states than a similar union; 
and the South African Dominion will then be repre- 
sented by a like functionary. This scheme for co- 
lonial representation need not be final ; but it would, 
in any case, offer a satisfactory and simple solution 
of the difficulty of securing fitting representation of 
the Empire, and of giving the colonies a voice in the 
Ministry. After all is said and done, it is the Minis- 
try and not Parliament which decides the issues of 
peace and war. 

Unquestionably the foundation of this office — the 
agent-generalship — has done more than any other 
modern development to preserve the unity of the 
Empire. Little by little the officers, appointed! 
by the colonies to represent their interests and views 



I>ROGEESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 109 

at Downing Street, have grown in dignity and im- 
portance, until to-day they may be said to exercise 
a most commanding influence over the policy of the 
Government. Technically an Agent-General only 
represents the responsible Ministry which may be 
in power at the time of his appointment; but prac- 
tically his ofiice goes beyond this ; and in many cases 
it is not too much to say of an Agent-General, that 
he speaks as an ambassador for the colony he repre- 
sents. This is all the more so, because as a rule 
an Agent-General is not removed by succeeding Co- 
lonial Governments, at the termination of any given 
Colonial Ministry. Sir Charles Mills represented 
Cape Colony from the time of his appointment until 
his death. Sir David Tennant, his successor, has 
survived several local Ministries, two in any case, 
and so has Sir Walter Peace, who acts for I^atal in 
this country. The office of Agent-General for the 
Australasian colonies has not been so staple ; neither 
has the High-Commissionership for Canada been 
held so long and uninterruptedly by any given Min- 
ister as in the case of the South African envoys or 
ambassadors. An Agent-General is something more 
and something less than an ambassador. On the 
whole his office is more responsible and embracing 
than that of an ambassador. 

Another influence making for imperial unity, must 
be recorded in the practice which received so con- 
spicuous an enlargement at the time of the Diamond 
Jubilee, when every Colonial Premier was so dis- 



110 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tinguished, of making leading colonial statesmen 
and legal dignitaries members of Her Majesty's 
Privy Council. Again the summoning of Colonial 
Conferences, the first assembled in 1887 and the 
second, somewhat less informal in character, in 
1897, has had a decided tendency to strengthen 
inter-imperial cohesion. The Conference of 1887 
was summoned by Her Majesty's Colonial Secre- 
tary, the Eight Hon. Edward Stanhope. It was a 
purely consultative assembly; and Mr. Stanhope's 
invitation was confined to the governments of col- 
onies possessing representative institutions, and to 
the Government of the United Kingdom. 

The subjects proposed for discussion were impe- 
rial defence, and imperial communication. The Con- 
ference met early in April, 1887, and was dissolved 
in May. It marked the first step toward the consoli- 
dation of the Empire; though I ought perhaps to 
mention that on more than one previous occasion, 
notably in 1876, when Lord Carnarvon summoned 
an informal conference of South African statesmen, 
Colonial Secretaries have sought direct advice from 
the statesmen of the colonies. The Conference of 
1887 demonstrated conclusively that a deliberative 
assembly could easily be brought together from the 
uttermost parts of the earth; and how simple was 
the machinery necessary to give effect to conclusions 
arrived at, at such an assembly. Although this 
Conference was purely advisory, it was found pos- 
sible to settle the question of Australian defence 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. HI 

out of hand. This was done by telegraphing for 
the assent of the respective governments to the 
'scheme determined upon, and subject to the subse- 
quent approval of the respective parliaments was 
made definitive. 

Also it was clearly shown that sectional or local 
matters, that is to say matters affecting the well- 
being and interests of certain groups of colonies, 
could be discussed in sub-committee, so to speak, 
the non-interested colonies standing out. These dis- 
cussions resulted in various consultations with the 
Home Government, and in the settlement of many 
outstanding matters of importance. The Conference 
proved conclusively that no colony was anxious to 
interfere in affairs as between the Home Govern- 
ment and a particular colony, or group of colonies, 
w^hich did not concern it, and that while there was 
no disposition to meddle in other people's business, 
there was a healthy recognition of the fact that the 
large business of the Empire Yvas also the business 
of each colony individually. The Conference was 
attended by the delegates — Prime Ministers or other 
representative statesmen — of all the principal col- 
onies. 

The Conference of 18 9^7 was perhaps even more 
important and fruitful of results than its predeces- 
sor, ten years earlier. It was attended by the 
Prime Ministers of Canada, ]^ew South Wales, 
Victoria, New Zealand, Queensland, Cape Colony, 
South Australia, JN'ewfoundland^ Tasmania, West- 



11^ PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ern Australia and l!Tatal. It may be taken as a 
sign of the times that the commercial relations of 
the United Kingdom and the self-governing colonies 
were, in this instance, the first matter to be con- 
sidered. Obviously imperial defence, which was 
dealt with afterwards, and which was first on the 
agenda at the previous Conference, takes precedence 
of every question affecting the welfare and mutual 
interdependence of the component parts of the Em- 
pire; but until the colonies have some voice in the 
making and direction of our external policy, and 
until they are able to bring their weight to bear 
on any given issue determinative of peace or war, 
it is impossible to arrange a system which shall 
provide for the defence of the Empire on a co-opera- 
tive basis. The commercial relations of the Empire 
and its common defence are, in a large measure, 
interdependent, seeing that contributions toward 
defence must be regulated by the financial position 
of the colonies, and that position is largely depend- 
ent upon the trade relations of Mother Country 
and colonies. As to a scheme of common defence 
no advance was made in 1897 on the previous Con- 
ference, which did not formulate any definite 
scheme, though Mr. Hofmeyr's suggestion that a 
tax of two per cent, should be levied on all produce 
reaching colonial ports from the Mother Country 
to be applied to defensive purposes, in the interests 
of the whole Empire, was received with considerable 
favour. That the Conference of 1887 was not 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 113 

barren of results in this connection, I have already 
shown; while the second Conference was signalised 
by the unconditional offer made by Cape Colony, 
through the mouth of its then Premier — Sir Gordon 
Sprigg — to present the Empire with a first-class 
warship. This offer, when translated into fact, took 
the shape of an annual grant of £30,000 to the 
Eoyal ]^avy, which grant, as a matter of fact, 
goes beyond the original offer; since this sum capi- 
talised, represents something more than the cost of 
a first-class battle-ship. At first sight the moral 
significance of this offer appeared to outweigh its 
material advantage. 'No doubt many of the mem- 
bers who voted for it were animated by patriotic 
motives; but in the light of subsequent events, it is 
impossible to take the votes of many members of the 
Africander Bond as earnests of loyalty. It is clear 
that most of these members have allowed their 
patriotism to be gradually whittled away by the 
specious representatives, and in some cases direct 
bribes, of Transvaal agents. The most that can be 
said for the votes of a large section of the Bonds- 
men is, that they show they still recognise the fact 
that, without the protection of the Empire's navy, 
Cape Colony would be at the mercy of any Euro- 
pean marauder who might see fit to attack her. 
This, of course, is a cynical view to take ; but an un- 
avoidable one in the circumstances. It is not sug- 
gested that the majority of Cape legislators were 
animated by these selfish and sordid motives, and 
8 



114 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tlie value of tHis majority's action is distinctly moral 
and imperial rather than material. 

When Australia decided twelve years earlier to 
make some provision for the defence of its shores, 
it might be said that she was only doing in a 
small way what, were she independent of the Em- 
pire, she would have to do on a much larger scale. 
Were it not for the unfortunate considerations stated 
above, which no thinking man can ignore, the pay- 
ment of £30,000 a year into the Imperial Exchequer, 
to be used for the defence of the Empire, irrespec- 
tive of time and place, would put that gift on a 
higher platform than the Australian contribution. 
The Cape's action — but for the unfortunate suspi- 
cion which has now become fact, that many thou- 
sands among Cape Colonists of Dutch extraction 
are traitors to the Empire, and that of these, some 
among those delegates of the people who have taken 
the oath of allegiance to the Queen as members of 
the legislature have to be numbered — ^might have 
been taken as evidence that the Cape as a whole 
recognised that you cannot touch or menace the 
smallest colony without touching or menacing the 
whole Empire; and as a tacit but sufficiently im- 
portant move toward a general recognition of the 
homogeneity, interdependence and cohesion of the 
Empire, and of the fact that the Empire can count 
upon the efforts of its outlying provinces, as well 
as its metropolis, to protect it against invasion or 
insult, thereby insuring that it shall escape whole 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 115 

in the day when it is seriously menaced. So I con- 
fess I thought when the Cape vote was first cabled to 
England. But reflection brought ugly doubts, and 
those ugly doubts have since been more than justi- 
fied by ugly facts. 

To return however, to the Colonial Conference 
of 1897. While that Conference was careful not to 
commit itself to the advocacy of any particular 
scheme for improving the political relations be- 
tween the United Kingdom and the self-governing 
colonies, it was careful to put on record its accept- 
ance of existing relations as satisfactory for the 
time being. At first sight this resolution might ap- 
pear to be an act of supererogation. But this was 
far from being the case. It was essential, in any 
event it was most salutary and useful, that the col- 
onies should record ofiicially their loyal acquiescence 
in existing arrangements; because busybodies are 
abroad who endeavour to put colonists out of conceit 
with their state, urging upon them the risks they 
run of being involved in disputes and wars which 
they have had no hand in making, and which do not 
concern their interests. Technically, this is unques- 
tionably their position to-day, and as I have already 
said, it is a position which cannot permanently ob- 
tain ; indeed, it is a disability of which they ought to 
be relieved as soon as possible. At the moment how- 
ever, the time is not ripe for the removal of this dis- 
ability or grievance. Meanwhile colonists can rest 
(assured, I hope, that no responsible Minister of the 



116 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Crown would involve Great Britain in a general, 
that is to say, European war, without fully consid- 
ering the interests and positions of the component 
parts of the Empire, and of that Empire as a unit, 
with the same singleness of purpose as he would 
consider the interests and position of the United 
Kingdom. Already the homogeneity and interde- 
pendence of the Empire are such, that no war can 
and would be waged in the interests of the United 
Kingdom alone, unless indeed it should so happen 
— to cite the exception is to suggest its impossibility 
— that the outlying portions of the Empire could or 
would be unaffected by the issue. 

In the realm of commerce two most important 
resolutions were submitted to the Conference and 
passed. The first embodied an earnest and unani- 
mous recommendation that the Imperial Govern- 
ment should denounce at the earliest convenient 
opportunity, any treaties v/hich hampered the com- 
mercial relations between Great Britain and her 
colonies. Her Majesty's Government was not slov/ 
to give effect to this recommendation. It was noti- 
fied to the Belgian and German Governments that 
those commercial treaties, which were a bar to the 
establishment of preferential tariff relations between 
Mother Country and colonies, should terminate on 
July 30, 1898. The Finance Minister of Canada 
soon afterwards responded by announcing in his 
budget speech, that the reciprocity section of the 
tariff would in future only apply to the United 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. H^ 

Kingdom, India and certain other British colonies, 
and by announcing that the preferential tariff would 
be in any other British colony or possession, the cus- 
toms tariff, which was as favourable on the whole to 
Canada as Canada's was to such colony. 

The second resolution committed the Premiers 
to confer with their colleagues with a view to seeing 
whether the relations between the Mother Country 
and the colonies could be improved in the direction 
of giving a preference by the colonies to products 
of the United Kingdom. This of course, was only 
a tentative move, but it was one which may be fairly 
regarded as tending toward a scheme of protection 
within the confines of the Empire, and of exclusion 
from without, which in the fulness of time the well- 
wishers of the Empire hope to see perfected. 

For the rest, the Conference recorded its opinion 
that periodical colonial conferences were desirable, 
and the exceedingly difficult question of the position 
of Asiatic immigrants in British colonies was dis- 
cussed. Sympathy with the scheme for providing 
the whole Empire with the penny post, though it did 
not then go beyond acquiescence in the principle, 
has since been accepted by Canada, India, ISTatal, 
and later by Cape Colony also, the Australasian 
colonies being now the only important group which 
has not adhered to the Imperial Penny Postage 
scheme. At first sight this measure may appear to 
be one of comparatively minor moment; but as 
a matter of fact it is likely to prove to be, 



118 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

and has indeed already proved itself to be, one 
of superlative importance. Those who remembered 
that an entire revolution in the domestic relations 
of the dwellers in the United Kingdom followed 
upon the introduction of penny postage within the 
limits of the British Isles, were confident that the 
cheapening of the means for inter-communication 
within the boundaries of the Empire would have a 
similar result. Sir Eowland Hill's penny postage 
system brought village nearer village, town nearer 
town, and province nearer province, so far as the 
Kingdom was concerned, and exercised a materially 
beneficent influence in knitting more closely to- 
gether England and Scotland; unfortunately it is 
impossible to add Ireland; the means whereby that 
country may be joined more closely in affection to 
its sister Kingdoms has, alas! hitherto evaded all 
the efforts of statecraft and philanthropy. As 
touching Mr. Henniker Heaton's far-sighted scheme 
and its effects on the Empire at large, I shall have 
to say more in a later chapter. I may remark here, 
however, that its utility has been amply demon- 
strated during the war in South Africa. It has 
enabled the British public to learn what the censor 
would feign disguise, and it has been an incalcu- 
lable boon to the soldiers fighting for their Queen 
and to their anxious relatives at home. 

Before the Conference of 1897 dissolved, the 
Premiers put on record their opinion that the time 
had arrivecj wheu all restrictions which prevent in- 



PROGRESS TOWARDS IMPERIAL UNITY. 119 

vestment of trust funds in colonial stock should be 
removed; a most important step toward the recog- 
nition of the unity of Empire and one which cannot 
be delayed much longer. 

Apart however, from the direct results, and they 
were considerable, of this conference, indirectly it 
must be held to have accomplished much more. The 
occasion of its assembling, the celebration of Her 
Majesty's prolonged reign, sixty years of sover- 
eignty, and the magnificent reception given to the 
civil representatives and military forces of the vari- 
ous colonies, — it was noteworthy, as I have already 
remarked, that the colonial Premiers and the co- 
lonial troops were only second to royalty in the eyes 
of the public — ^would not itself have guaranteed that 
the Conference, drawn together, at a moment which 
must be regarded as eminently a psychological one, 
should be fruitful of good and far-reaching results. 
It is always rash to prophesy ; but one certainly runs 
very little risk in declaring that the year 1897 not 
only witnessed the sowing of seed full of high poten- 
tialities for the future power and permanence of the 
British Empire, but to aver that this seed has al- 
ready sent forth growths so vigorous that they have, 
in the United Kingdom, stifled and killed outright 
those noxious weeds of disloyalty and separatism, by 
which during the earlier years of the Queen's reign 
the Empire as an enduring unity was threatened. 

Signs of this healthy growth have been visible 
everywhere during the penultimate years of the 



120 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

nineteenth century. Instances might be indefinitely 
multiplied, but seeing that no better proof of the 
depth and sincerity of any sentiment can be forth- 
coming than the readiness of individuals to risk 
their lives in giving eifect to those sentiments, the 
spontaneous offers of detachments of colonial troops 
which reached the War Office from Canada, Aus- 
tralasia, Mauritius and other colonies should war re- 
sult from the continued defiance of the Transvaal 
of her suzerain, offers which have since been made 
good and more than good by an imposing contin- 
gent of colonial troops, now proving themselves 
among the very best fighting material in South 
Africa, may be taken as proof positive of the deep 
attachment of the colonies to Her Majesty and to 
the Empire, and the generous recognition of the 
benefits of the imperial connection which now ani- 
mates the length and breadth of the lands owing 
allegiance to the Queen. 





GEORGE R. PARKIN, M.A., LI..D., C.M.G. 



FISCAL UNITY. 121 



CHAPTER VL 



FISCAL UNITY. 



Professor Seeley^ in that ■unimpassioned trea- 
tise of his, The Expansion of England, has been at 
great pains to show — and the more we ponder the 
chain of facts he marshals with so much skill and 
originality the more we are disposed to accept his 
conclusions, at first sight apparently fanciful ones — 
that the struggles with Europe in which England 
was engaged throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries, were much more narrowly 
concerned with the rivalry for the possession of the 
JS'ew World than with the religious differences 
and dynastic quarrels to which those struggles are 
ordinarily attributed. But, however true this may 
be, and in the main it is true, it is no less true that 
the possession of the IN^ew World was, in the minds 
of the combatants, for a long while regarded not as 
an end in itself, but merely as a pawn in the game ; 
the real impelling forces making for these continu- 
ous wars being hidden from the peoples engaged in 
them; and when I say peoples I include, in a large 
measure, their rulers. Those rivalries, jealousies 
and hatreds, which had their seat in Europe, we 
now know to have been of minor importance; but 



122 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

to the combatants themselves they were, or appeared 
to be, the real bones of contention. It iSj however, 
abundantly plain that during these ceaseless wars 
the real value of the ISTew World never dawned upon 
the vision of the factions struggling to possess them- 
selves of it. They could not regard it as a home for 
their children, because the constant drain on the 
manhood of the nations occasioned by this continu- 
ous warfare, precluded the very idea of a surplus 
population. 

'No. The New World was desired by European 
nations because of the military and political glory 
attached to its conquest and possession; and for the 
rest, it was regarded as a great estate from which 
supplies of gold, silver and precious stones, spices 
and tobacco might be drawn. And from it they did 
draw such supplies, or, to be more exact, the Span- 
iards and Portuguese, who possessed themselves of 
the southern and more central parts of the conti- 
nent, did. In brief, transatlantic possessions were 
valued as swelling the importance of the nations 
to whom they belonged, and as fields to be exploited 
in the interests of the metropolis itself and its in- 
habitants, and not at all in the interests of the bond 
fide settlers, who, in most cases, were forced to sub- 
scribe to the revenue of the parent state. 

England, it is true, drew little enough from the 
colonies which fell to her; while the memorable at- 
tempt she made to derive revenue from the New 
]England States, resulted in her losing those States 



FISCAL UNITY. 123 

altogether. TKe colonists, no doubt, were techni- 
cally right in what they did, and the Home Gov- 
ernment was wrongheaded and perverse enough. 
[Nevertheless those States would have been absorbed 
bj France, had not Great Britain come to the rescue , 
a fact of which the colonists were somewhat ungener- 
ously forgetful. 

India, of course, had a more direct commercial 
value; but then India did not contribute directly to 
the Imperial Exchequer. As time went on, and the 
East India Company had to give way little by little 
to imperial control, India became a source of direct 
expense to the United Kingdom. Still the tobacco 
of Virginia, and the sugar of Jamaica had enriched 
numerous Englishmen. So from the earliest mo- 
ment when Europe began to concern herself with 
the trade of India, its products have enriched the 
nation that happened at the moment to control that 
trade. The Venetians, Portuguese, Dutch, and for 
a brief period the French, possessed themselves in 
turn of this valuable source of wealth. The influ- 
ence of England began, of course, with the establish- 
ment of the East India Company in the last year 
of the sixteenth century. This company started as a 
trading association, pure and simple; but in com- 
mon with other chartered companies — it is the law 
of their being and the necessity of their existence — 
it soon developed political and administrative func- 
tions, engaging nieanwhile largely in the business 
of war. 



124: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

The Indian Empire has not, of course, contrib- 
uted to the upkeep of the British Empire. It 
has, indeed, though technically self-supporting, in- 
volved the central government in vast indirect 
expense. But, as in the case of the colonies, 
so in that of India. Its possession has added 
immensely to the power and wealth of the United 
Kingdom. In the early days of Clive and Warren 
Hastings, the merchant princes of India — nabobs 
they were called — settled themselves in every county 
in the Kingdom, diffusing their wealth, generally 
not too cleanly gotten, far and wide. This wealth 
represented dealings in indigo, cotton, spices, pre- 
cious stones and works of art. The transference in 
the concrete form of the riches of India to Great 
Britain meant, of course, an important addition 
to those factors which have enabled us, as a people, 
to increase and multiply and replenish the earth. 

When, therefore, a one-sided view is taken of the 
fiscal relations subsisting between England and her 
colonies and dependencies, it should be remembered 
that colonies are of great value indirectly as ave- 
nues for trade and commerce, and as means of ac- 
cumulating wealth; and that this expansion makes 
for an increase of population, and acting and react- 
ing, has a very direct bearing on the wealth of the 
nation. 

To admit this need not blind one to the fact that 
under a well-devised scheme of reciprocity, that is 
to say; a scheme giving the preference to inter-' 



FISCAL UNITY. 125 

imperial traders within the Empire, those benefits 
which have indirectly accrued from the relationship 
of colonies and Motherland as it exists, might have 
been far greater than they have been. Mr. George 
Parkin, in that suggestive work of his, The Prob- 
lem of National Unity, remarks that, " in matters of 
fiscal policy the British Empire at present occupies 
a position peculiar among all the nations of the 
world, in that for nearly half a century (Mr. Par- 
kin wrote in 1892, and he is referring here to the 
passing of the Corn Laws, and the adoption of Free 
Trade in 1846) it has been without any fiscal sys- 
tem common to its various parts.'^ When Mr. 
Parkin wrote, he declared that there were many 
signs of a disposition among responsible persons, 
several of whom had held offices as Ministers of the 
Crown, to re-consider the position of this country in 
the matter of Eree Trade. At the moment of writ- 
ing, there are, can it be questioned, evidences far 
stronger than there were in 1893, that Great Britain's 
leaders are wavering in their allegiance to a one-sided 
system of Eree Trade, and that even among the mem- 
bers of the Cobden Club, signs are not wanting that 
the knees of the stalwarts are weakening. It is the 
characteristic of our race to cling tightly to any pol- 
icy to which it has once given its unequivocal con- 
sent. It took years to induce the people of this 
country to accept Eree Trade; as many years as it 
took to induce them to rouse themselves on the 
slavery question, or on the education question, to 



126 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

mention a few of the most noteworthy instances in 
which national apathy has been galvanised into a 
national sentiment; a sentiment which, once trans- 
lated into definitive action, has become a sacred art- 
icle of faith, a shibboleth to conjure with, a law 
unalterable as were the laws of the Medes and the 
Persians. 

The British race — I am thinking mainly of that 
portion of it which continues in the British Isles — 
is slow to accept any new idea or principle ; but once 
having accepted it, it is slower still to recognise that 
the idea or principle has become obsolete in use; a 
stumbling-block in the way of further progress. The 
extraordinary self-sufficiency and overweening van- 
ity of our people, invariably betray them into im- 
agining this characteristic, this determination to 
stick to a worn-out principle, comes from national 
staunchness; whereas it is really due, as I have re- 
marked elsewhere, to a certain intellectual sloth, 
a stolid resolve not to be troubled again with a con- 
troversy which, once having settled, they regard as 
settled for ever. 

It may be allowed that it is fortunate for thi 
English people that they are not so susceptible to 
new ideas, or so prone to abandon old ones, as their 
near neighbours; but this stolid reluctance to re- 
open a question is fraught with serious consequences. 
It is certain that millions of Englishmen accept 
Eree Trade as the corner-stone of their country's 
prosperity, not because they have mastered facts 



FISCAL UNITY. 127 

which would enable them to justify and uphold this 
belief, but because that belief was forced upon them 
in their extreme youth, or has been transmitted to 
them by their fathers as an indispensable article of 
a self-respecting Englishman's political creed. 

At last, however, serious misgivings are begin- 
ning to trouble the minds of the most stubborn up- 
holders of the doctrine of Free Trade; misgivings 
due, on the one hand, to the prodigious growth which 
has marked the final quarter of the century in the 
idea of imperial solidarity, and to the success with 
which certain foreign nations, notably Belgium, 
Germany and America, have beaten Great Britain 
in her own especial markets, the British colonies. 
The English manufacturer has become seriously 
alarmed; he begins to look to the rulers of his 
country to protect him against rivals who do their 
utmost to exclude him from his own markets. 
Again, the colonial side of the question begins to 
force itself upon the attention of the people. The 
West Indian group for instance, constitutes an ob- 
ject lesson in how not to govern an Empire. Ja- 
maica, and indeed the West Indian colonies gener- 
ally, are dependent for their prosperity, for their 
very existence, on their main industry — sugar. Now, 
owing to the policy of the whole of Europe — every 
country of which fosters the sugar of its own col- 
onies by bounties, and excludes the sugar coming 
from foreign country or colony by duties — West 
Indian sugar has been unable to compete with the 



128 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

sugar produced in other parts of the world. The 
cruellest part of this unhappy condition of affairs 
is revealed, when the fact comes into sight that the 
West Indies, under the operation of these bounties, 
are unable to send sugar into the Mother Country 
at a price which enables the growers to get an ad- 
vantage over sugar coming from the colonies of 
foreign countries, or the beet-produced sugar of the 
Continent. The consequence of this is, that not only 
are the sugar-growers of Jamaica reduced to actual 
or comparative ruin, but the five million or so of 
British subjects — negroes, half-castes for the most 
part, but British subjects for all that, inhabiting the 
West Indian Islands — are reduced to a state always 
bordering on indigence; a state which quickly de- 
generates into starvation under the stress of any 
physical disaster, or financial crisis which may over- 
take the islands. 

As a matter of fact, the West Indies are continu- 
ally falling under the ban of calamity. For one 
thing, devastating hurricanes are always occurring. 
The years 1898 and 1899 witnessed such hurricanes. - 
They were most severe, and in each case the Co- 
lonial Secretary had to appeal to the Lord Mayor to 
open subscription lists for the sufferers. It cannot 
be said that this is a very dignified proceeding. It 
ought not to be made obligatory on any large group 
of colonies to come periodically to the Mother Coun- 
try for alms; merely because that Mother Country, 
to gratify its own selfish citizens, insists on keeping 



FISCAL UNITY. 129 

sugar down to a price which spells ruin for those 
colonies. But the West Indies find themselves in 
this unhappy case. Since there are no imperial 
funds to supply the lack of local ones, these ill-used 
colonies have to rely upon private philanthropy in 
the hour of their need. The position is humiliating, 
and it is all the harder to bear in that these colonies 
are not, in any large measure, responsible for their 
misfortunes. They suffer from a vicious adherence 
on the part of the Imperial Government to a hard 
and fast fiscal system, which applied without dis- 
tinction to all colonies spells ruin to one important 
group. 

The Eoyal Commission which, a few years since, 
investigated into the condition of the sugar industry 
in the West Indian Islands, comprising Sir Henry 
!Rorman, Sir David Barbour and Sir Edward Grey, 
confessed that the sugar industry was not only in 
danger of great reduction, but of actual extinction 
in some colonies. It allowed that in many colonies 
the industry could not be replaced by others, and 
that its misfortunes were not due, in any consider- 
able degree, to extravagance in management, or to 
inadequate supervision consequent on absentee 
ownership. In other words it declared that the real 
causes of the distress and failure, were radical and 
permanent, so long as the conditions obtained, now 
existing — the competition of other sugar-producing 
countries, and especially the beet sugar produced 
under a system of bounties. As to the remedy, 
9 



130 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Sir Henry ]!Torman alone had the courage to sup- 
port the only possible one, the imposition of coun- 
tervailing duties on bounty-fed sugar imported into 
the United Kingdom. 

^N'ow this West Indian question, this distress of the 
West Indian sugar growers, may be taken as a test 
question. It is proved conclusively that these col- 
onies are being ruined because Great Britain refuses 
to help them against their rivals and enemies. They 
are our proteges; more they are our children. It 
is absolutely impossible for five million British sub- 
jects to prosper, unless we open to them our markets 
under circumstances which will enable them to meet 
their rivals and enemies on equal terms. As re- 
cently as June, 1898, the Belgian Government sum- 
moned a Sugar Bounties Conference, the only effect 
of which was to show that any hope that Europe 
would abandon direct or indirect export bounties on 
sugar, might be dismissed as a phantasy. The West 
Indian planters thereupon met at Barbados, and 
while expressing gratitude for imperial grants, very 
naturally and properly pressed upon the Imperial 
Government the necessity of excluding bounty-fed 
sugar from the British market, or to impose counter- 
vailing duties. But every British Ministry enter- 
tains a craven dread of the parrot-cry of the out- 
and-out Free Trader, which were any sign of yield- 
ing manifested, would immediately raise its voice 
in loud condemnation of the Government. The 
many-headed, persuaded that their holy of holies 



FISCAL tJNITY* 131 

was endangered, would take up the cry, utterly in- 
different to the interests of five million British sub- 
jects whose home happens to be outside these islands. 
It is this kind of insular selfishness which stands 
in the way of the complete unity of the Empire ; and 
this form of ignorant insularity can never be effect- 
ually removed, until representatives of every portion 
of the Empire are able to lift up their voices in a 
real Imperial Parliament. Imperial federation is 
necessary in order to teach British governments that 
it is the duty of an imperial government to govern 
an imperial people in the interests of the entire 
nation; not in the sole interests of one of its prov- 
inces, for the United Kingdom is one province of 
the Empire, Canada is another, and the West Indies 
another. It is, as I have said elsewhere, sheer 
brutality, if it is not insanity, to sacrifice a whole 
group of colonies in order that the people of one 
province of the Empire — for after all, although it 
is its metropolis, the United Kingdom in relation to 
the whole Empire is merely its premier province — 
may reap a small advantage. Moreover in this case 
it so happens — I mention it incidentally, it in no 
wise strengthens the position taken up, although it 
makes the attitude of the case-hardened Eree Trader 
the more untenable — that the benefit to the people of 
the United Kingdom is illusory. A farthing or a half- 
penny, even a penny on the cost per pound of sugar, 
would be anything but an unmixed evil; indeed on 
the whole it would be easy to prove that the cheap- 



132 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ness of sugar is anything but a national blessing. 
It has certainly served the turn of one of the sur- 
gical professions, and largely increased the number 
of persons able to get a living by following the 
trade of surgical and mechanical dentistry. But 
these advantages to individuals cannot be set against 
the curse of unsound teeth and of impaired stomachs 
and digestions for which the lavish use of sugar h 
responsible. Intemperance in the use of sugar is 
said to be productive of the most painful and fatal 
organic maladies. These considerations, as I have 
admitted, constitute a side issue which does not 
affect the main issue — the duty of our rulers to rule 
the people of Great Britain as one nation, in the 
common interests of all, and not to keep their eyes on 
that section of the nation which happens to be near- 
est the seat of government. 

It is true that so far this hard and fast adherence 
to the shibboleth of Free Trade has not, as Mr. 
Parkin has remarked, seriously affected the senti- 
ment of imperial unity within the Empire; but it 
is becoming, year by year, increasingly evident that 
if we are to conserve the Empire, if its component 
parts are to continue to hang together, we must 
devise some means of avoiding such scandals as this 
West Indian business, and that in our fiscal dealings 
with the foreigner, we must show some regard to the 
interests, and for the sensibilities of the colonies. 
If they are to receive no favour which we do not 
grant to foreign nationst, they will assuredly begin 



FISCAL UNITY. 133 

to question the strength and sincerity of that regard 
and affection for them we are never tired of pro- 
claiming. If, as I have said before, we persistently 
show that in governing the Empire, we are mindful 
almost exclusively of the interests of the dwellers 
in its metropolis, and look upon those of the advance 
guard in our colonies with indifference, the result 
will be disastrous to the imperial connection. 

Happily signs are not wanting that the people 
of this country and their rulers — though the impulse 
must come from the people in a country where the 
so-called rulers follow in the wake of the doers and 
thinkers instead of leading them — are awaking to the 
exigencies of the case, and are coming to understand 
that an insular and a selfish policy is entirely out of 
date in administering the affairs of a nation which 
has burst the bonds of the leash which once confined 
it in the limits of its island home, and has spread 
itself over a fourth of the habitable globe. The 
United Kingdom with a population the density of 
which exceeds 500 persons to the square mile, must, 
in its own interests, have an eye on the well-being 
of those extra-insular estates wherein the density of 
the people to the mile is measured by a unit or by 
the fraction of a unit. 

^N'ow the case for the West Indies is one in which 
it is easy to prove that justice could be done to those 
colonies without affecting the actual well-being of 
the Mother Country. Similarly the wines of Aus- 
tralia, Columbia and South Africa might be ad- 



134 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

mitted under conditions which would give them an 
advantage over the wines of France, Germany, 
Spain, Portugal, Italy and Austria, without affect- 
ing the British consumer appreciably. At present 
Chancellors of the Exchequer turn deaf ears to the 
plea that colonial wines should enjoy preferential 
treatment at the hands of the Custom House author- 
ities, on the score that no such preference is shown 
to British goods by the colonies concerned. 

For my part, although I deplore the action of the 
colonies, I must say I regard, and have always re- 
garded, this position, this tu quoque argument, as 
a somewhat unnecessarily narrow, not to say churlish 
one, on the part of a rich mother to daughters who, 
since they may be regarded as beginners, are entitled 
to a certain indulgence from a country which is 
after all, the author of their being. Moreover it 
is for Great Britain to set the example, and to 
trust to the generosity and good feeling of the col- 
onies to follow it. 

As a matter of fact Canada has already given 
earnest of her desire to admit the products of Great 
Britain and her colonies on terms which give them 
an advantage over the exports of the foreigner. 

It is, however, when we come to that great staple, 
the breadstuffis, the free admission of which was the 
fons et origo of the free trade movement, that we 
find ourselves face to face, not only with the most 
important phase of the controversy, but with a 
phase which divides opinion by a more clearly 



FISCAL UNITY. 135 

marked line of cleavage than any other aspect of 
this thorny question. It is scarcely necessary here 
to follow the great movement for the repeal of the 
corn laws, which may be said to have commenced 
immediately the twenty years' war with France cul- 
minated in the victory of England at Waterloo; a 
movement which was brought to a conclusion in 
1846, when Peel carried his great measure whereby 
the grain of the whole world was admitted to our 
ports absolutely free of duty. It is a commonplace 
of history, that these duties, while they enabled two 
classes of the people, the landowners and tenant 
farmers, to prosper exceedingly, and as an indirect 
consequence, tended to keep a large section of the 
people on the land — this last a national benefit of 
unquestionable moment — inflicted terrible suffering 
upon the masses of the people, who were unable — and 
one is not of course dealing with the destitute and 
pauperised classes but with the wage earners — to 
purchase sufficient bread to keep their bodies in any- 
thing approaching a condition of proper nourish- 
ment. Obviously, almost any sacrifice was worth 
making in order to put a period on a condition- of 
affairs so intolerable and so hurtful to the physical 
and indeed moral well-being of the people. 

To admit this, is not to admit that after half a 
century the measure associated with Cobden's name 
is insusceptible of some modification and limitation. 
It is by no means certain that Cobden himself, 
were he alive to-day, would feel called upon to 



136 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

defend absolute Free Trade. It is notorious that 
the original Free Traders anticipated very different 
results from the acceptance by the nation of the 
principle of free trade, from those which have ac- 
tually followed upon it. They were never tired 
of proclaiming that England had only to lead the 
way, had only to hold the torch of Free Trade on 
high, and the nations of the earth would speedily 
follow the light. As a matter of fact the nations 
of the earth have done nothing of the sort. They 
have one and all grown steadily more and more 
wedded to the policy of protection ; and while Great 
Britain has opened her ports to the free reception 
of almost all the products of the earth, the manu- 
factures and hardwares of the United Kingdom 
have had to contend against a ring fence of the 
most rigid description, and her goods have been 
forced to fight their way, not only on the continent^ 
but in the colonies, in the face of duties of the most 
stringent and exacting kind. The dream of the early 
Victorian Free Trader, good easy man, who saw in 
this measure the beginning of the millennium, when 
all nations should agree to put aside non-produc- 
tive rivalries, and each following the particular bent 
of its national genius, devote itself to the exploita- 
tion of its natural resources, exchanging freely the 
result of its labours with its neighbours, has unhap- 
pily remained a dream. 

It is not necessary to follow this matter further 
so far as it concerns Great Britain's relations with 



FISCAL UNITY. 137 

the foreigner. What does concern us at this mo- 
ment, in this last year of the nineteenth century, 
is the effect, the growing effect which the general 
adhesion of the world to the policy of Protection 
is having upon the minds of the statesmen, not 
only of the IJnited Kingdom, but of the British 
colonies. Thoughtful men, of all shades of opinion, 
are beginning to take count of the undoubted fact 
that within the confines of the British Empire is 
to be found every product needful to man's well- 
being. Every necessity, and indeed every luxury 
of modern life, is capable of being supplied in 
abundance without going outside the boundaries of 
the Empire. 'No doubt this idea is still a nebulous 
one so far as the mass of the people be concerned; 
while even among those responsible ministers who 
have accepted it as a pious belief, there is a natural 
and perhaps excusable reluctance to proclaim the 
faith that is in them, lest they should be supposed to 
favour a return to those days, the Good Old Days, 
so called, when a 41b. loaf cost 8d., and tea was con- 
sidered a luxury by the middle classes, and by the 
working classes a rarely-attainable delight. Obvi- 
ously the dread of any such calamity as this makes 
men harden their hearts against allowing the very 
suggestion to enter into them, of a possible reversal 
of the Free Trade policy. 

^N'evertheless the contentions of the advocates of 
Fair Trade make headway little by little ; and there 
is a growing disposition to give them a hearing. To 



138 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

take the vital question, tlie central question of all — 
the food supply. In recent years, the difficulty, often 
amounting to an impossibility, of making farming 
a commercial success, has forced itself upon the 
notice of those sections of the British public, 
by far the largest section of that public, which 
knows nothing of agricultural life. The chil- 
dren of the field labourers continually crowd 
into towns, bringing with them sorry tales of the 
barrenness and nakedness of the land ; the dearth of 
remunerative employment through the failure of the 
farmers, and the consequent neglect of all agricul- 
tural interests. Even where things have not been 
so bad as to necessitate actual closing down, farms 
have become more and more pastoral in contradis- 
tinction to agricultural, grass has taken the place of 
corn, and fewer and fewer hands are required for 
tillage and cultivation. 

Mr. Rider Haggard, in his recently published 
The Farmer s Year Boole, gives a lively picture 
of the decadence of farming in East Anglia, which 
is also a picture in epitome of the whole Kingdom, 
and although the present writer has not that best of 
all rights to speak which a practical knowledge of 
farming gives, a life spent for the most part in rural 
England and a keen interest in rural affairs, enable 
him to testify to the general accuracy of Mr. Hag- 
gardes conclusions. The direct mischief, serious 
though it be, is not unhappily the most serious as- 
pect of the matter, So far as the United Kingdom 



FISCAL UNITY. 139 

is concerned, the constant infiltration of the field 
labourer into the towns must have a most baneful 
effect upon the virility of the nation; lowering the 
standard of its manhood, little by little, and robbing 
the nation of what after all constitutes its backbone. 

Statistics prove that, after three generations, a 
family living wholly in London or other large city, 
and marrying exclusively into families which have 
lived under similar conditions, becomes extinct. 
The country districts produce the raw material, and 
although it is necessary that the towns should be 
constantly revivified by the country, the time is 
coming when, since the lame and halt alone remain 
on the fields, this healthful process of revivification 
must cease, for the country will cease to supply the 
sinew of the nation. It is essential that something 
should be done to stop this process of agrestic de- 
pletion ; and it would seem that in a modified appli- 
cation of the principles advocated by the Fair 
Traders, a hopeful solution is to be found. 

In this connection Sir Charles Tupper has boldly 
contended that it would be possible to put a duty 
of five shillings a quarter on foreign wheat, admit- 
ting colonial wheat free, without making an^ ap- 
preciable advance on the price of bread. He bases 
his conclusions on the fact that the Mark Lane 
prices of corn during the years 1890 and 1891, as 
attested by the Board of Agriculture, show that the 
prices fluctuated as much as ten shillings a quarter; 
eind that it was not until the maximum advance of 



140 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ten shillings was reached, that a halfpenny differ- 
ence was made in the fonr-pound loaf. Sir Charles 
Tupper argued from this that five shillings a quarter 
could be imposed upon foreign wheat without mak- 
ing any difference in the selling price of the loaf. 
Figures can be adduced, and have been adduced, 
by Sir Charles Tupper, Lord Dunraven and Mr. 
George Parkin, to prove that both in France and 
Germany increased duties on imported corn have 
resulted not merely in no increase of price, but in 
an actual decrease, internal development appearing 
to have more than compensated for the restrictions 
placed on foreign imports. It cannot be doubted 
that a like result would follow in the case of restrict- 
ing the import into the United Kingdom of foreign 
corn. If, however, Canadian corn were allowed to 
enter free, it might be asked how would the British 
farmer benefit. That he would benefit I am as- 
sured, inasmuch as a duty of ^ve shillings on foreign 
imports, Avould tend to steady and harden prices all 
round; while it is obvious that in any case some 
time would elapse before Canada would be able to 
send corn in such quantity as to seriously affect the 
market. Moreover, so soon as the principle of inter- 
imperial reciprocity were established, the duty 
would be regulated from time to time, so as to allow 
the British farmer to hold his own. Again, it is not 
necessary to let Canadian corn in wholly free from 
duty ; so long as that duty is made considerably lower 
than that imposed on foreign corn, the priuciple 
will have been established, 



FISCAL UNITY. 141 

Apart, however, from the consideration as to how 
the British agriculturist would be affected, it is ob- 
vious that were an Imperial Zollverein instituted, 
" a f ew years of strenuous effort would,'^ as Mr. 
Parkin has said, " make the Empire self-sufficing in 
the matter of food supply, a result which would add 
enormously to its cohesion and unity.'' It would 
also, as the Times allows, secure for the Empire 
not only a vast reserve of political strength, but the 
command of large and rapidly growing markets, 
" while,'' to quote Sir Charles Tupper, " it would 
give stimulus to colonial industry, and increase the' 
colonial market for British manufactures, to the 
great advantage of the British workingman." 

Although it cannot be claimed as a rule admitting 
of no qualification, it is roughly true that trade fol- 
lows the flag, or, as Mr. Parkin has put it, and I 
have advanced a like plea myself in many lectures 
and addresses, " social, political, financial and even 
sentimental considerations unite to create the wants 
of a people, and so in a measure to give tendencies 
to trade. It must be patent to the meanest intelli- 
gence that if you give advantages in the home 
market to colonial products, thereby increasing in- 
calculably the demand for such products, a vastly 
larger number of British immigrants than the num- 
ber at present absorbed could leave crowded-out 
Britain for the colonies. Also that these newcomers 
would need the manufactures of Great Britain, and 
that the demand for them would enable numberless 



142 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

British workmen to find employment at home. By 
this means the whole nation at home and in the col- 
onies would be vastly enriched and strengthened.'' 

In discussing this matter, it is often remarked 
that the colonies have made the adoption of any such 
policy exceedingly difficult; since by adopting the 
principle of protection against the outside world, in- 
cluding Great Britain, they have definitively com- 
mitted themselves to a method of raising the revenue, 
necessary for their respective requirements, a method 
it will be exceedingly difficult to replace by another. 
It must be remembered however, in this connection 
that, although in the infancy of the colonies, those 
imports on incoming goods were not only an exceed- 
ingly convenient, but one might almost say neces- 
sary means of raising revenue ; with the growth of the 
population other sources of revenue present them- 
selves. Thus the Cape budget for June, 1899, con- 
tained a suggestion for imposing an income tax ; and 
there can be no doubt an income tax will be imposed 
in that colony. As I have said however, it is not 
necessary as a first measure, nor would it be expe- 
dient, to commit the Empire, as a whole, to a system 
of absolute free trade as between its component 
parts. That might come in the fulness of time. For 
the moment it will suffice, if the principle of giving 
preference to goods passing between the different 
parts of the Empire over those received into it from 
foreign countries is recognised. 

Toward the end of the nineteenth century this 



FISCAL UNITY. 143 

principle, gallantly fought for by the British Em- 
pire League, and by Sir Howard Vincent and other 
stalwarts here, and by many doughty champions in 
the various colonies, a principle long scouted as a 
sentimentality, has begun to take hold of the minds 
of the people ; and in the early part of the twentieth 
century will not only be recognised as a principle, 
but acted upon as a practical and necessary measure 
to secure the defence of interests common to the 
English race the world over. 



144 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER yil. 

THE TEIiTDENCIES OF IN^TEK-IMPERIAL TEADE. 

That great benefits to the Empire must follow 
upon the acceptance, and the practical application of 
the policy of free trade within its boundaries, and 
protection from without, may be ever so true; and 
ever so true the present writer believes it to be. It 
would be a mistake to forget however, that even as 
things are, Great Britain has derived, and continues 
to derive, immense trading advantages from the pos- 
session of colonies. From figures before me, I find 
that in ifeST the trade, export and import, of Eng- 
land with her colonies reached the magnificent total 
of £186,000,000, as against £21,000,000 which rep- 
resented the total of France's trade with her col- 
onies ; Holland's in a similar connection amounting 
to £8,000,000; Spain's to £5,000,000, and Portu- 
gal's to £317,000. In 1800 the export trade of 
Greater Britain was 30 millions, and the import 25 J 
millions, of which 24 millions were done with the 
Mother Country. These figures represent the en- 
tire aggregate of trade. 

To-day the figures are, or rather in 1896 they 
were: imports from India and the colonies, 241 
millions, and exports to them, 229 millions, mak- 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. I45 

ing a total of 4Y0 millions. The total trade of 
the United Kingdom was, in 1896, considerably 
over YOO millions, so that that of Greater Britain 
was nearly two-thirds as large as that of Great 
Britain and Ireland. In 1850 the combined trade of 
the Empire was 65 millions: We are therefore able 
to show a record of progress of which we have no 
need to be ashamed; though it would seem that 1890 
was the record year for British trade. Then the im- 
ports and exports summed up, to take Mr. Mulhall's 
figures, to 749 millions sterling. This was equal to 
£20 per inhabitant. Mr. Mulhall reminds us, how- 
ever, that the fall in value is due to a decline in the 
ratio of 15 per cent, in the world's price level 
between 1890 and 1896, and that, if the same level 
had been maintained, the merchandise exchanged 
would have represented a total of 850 millions ster- 
ling in the later year. 

In any case the imports from the British posses- 
sions have, according to certain statistics before me, 
about quadrupled themselves since the beginning 
of the century. According to others the increase 
is far greater. Statistics are apt to to be contradic- 
tory and confusing, and I may say that it is difficult 
not to become lost in their labyrinths. Neverthe- 
less one can form broad conclusions from their 
study, one of which is that, although the imports 
from British possessions have increased substan- 
tially during the century, the imports from foreign 
countries have increased even more in proportion. 
10 



146 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Thus it would seem that the imports from foreign 
countries to the IJnited Kingdom amounted to 
£357,000,000 in 1897, as against 94 millions from 
British possessions. 

From this fact it will be seen at once that, start- 
ing on the assumption, and it is a sound one, that 
with the encouragement of protection, even though 
the preferential duties in favour of the colonies were 
moderate, the outer Empire could send into the 
Motherland as plentiful, good and cheap a supply 
of all the necessities of life as that which now 
reaches her from foreign countries, and that an al- 
most limitless development of the import trade be- 
tween the colonies and the United Kingdom would 
follow on the adoption of a well-thought-out scheme 
of Imperial Reciprocity. The exports from the 
United Kingdom, which in 1897 reached a total of 
£87,000,000, would, of course, increase proportion- 
ately; because, as has been pointed out, free markets 
for colonial goods in the United Kingdom, and a 
material increase in imports therefrom, would mean 
a vast displacement of population from the Old 
World generally, not merely the British Isles, in 
favour of British colonies, and a concurrent growth 
in the demand in the colonies for the goods of the 
United Kingdom. For my part, I believe this result 
would follow upon the adoption in Great Britain 
of one-sided preference, the colonies making no 
commensurate concessions by abating their duties 
on British exports. This assumption however, is 



THE TENDENCIES OF iNTER-IMPERlAL TRADE. 14^ 

never likely to be put to the test, seeing tliat the 
colonies would certainly make those reciprocal con- 
cessions. 

I have already remarked that the decline of 15 
per cent, in the world's price-level between the years 
1890 and 1896 renders the figures of exports and im- 
ports somewhat delusive guides in estimating the 
growth of trade. Thus it would almost appear at 
first sight, that between 1887, when the total of inter- 
imperial trade is given at £186,000,000, and 1897, 
when this total is set down at £181,000,000, there 
had been a falling-off in the trade between the col- 
onies and Motherland, and vice versa. This, how- 
ever, is not the case. As to this fall in prices, Mr. 
Mulhall ingeniously shows that it has represented 
to Great Britain since 1850 a gain of something like 
600 millions sterling. But that by the way. 

Before leaving these figures, it must be, I think, 
frankly admitted that the export trade of Great 
Britain with her colonies has suffered severely from 
the competition^ of the foreigner; especially from 
American and German competition, and that the in- 
crease in that trade ought to have been much larger 
than it has been. The consular reports of the last few 
years have reiterated again and again the regret of 
Her Majesty's representatives at the supineness and 
procrastination of English manufacturers and trad- 
ers, who, both in regard to their dealings with colo- 
nists of British origin, and with the aboriginal peoples 
of those colonies, steadily decline to advance with the 



148 PROGREiSS OF BRITISH EMPlRfi. 

times, or to study the changing tastes and fancies of 
their customers, white and black — the African sav- 
age is, for instance, exceedingly whimsical in his 
tastes. Being above learning what is required of 
them, they have to give way to the foreigner ; whose 
consuls are practically so many trade-agents, and ad- 
vise their countrymen in Europe, engaged in colonial 
trade, as to the goods they should send out. This 
alertness on the part of American and Continental 
" houses,'' combined with greater energy, push and 
more frugal habits on the part of their employes, 
from top to bottom (this last qualification obviously 
applies to the European traders solely), together with 
a more liberal treatment of the importer in the way 
of samples and credit, is rapidly putting British 
merchants at a disadvantage in their own especial 
markets — the British colonies. 

ISTevertheless these markets are still of the great- 
est importance to the home-staying Englishman. 
Thus, in 1887, the annual value of English goods 
consumed in the United States was 8s. per head of 
the entire population. In Canada this annual value 
was 40s. per head, and in Australia £8 per head. 
I find that these figures are substantially correct 
as applied to the present moment. Taking those 
quoted by Mr. Parkin a few years ago, we discover 
that Germany and America consumed about §s. per 
head annually of British goods, France 9s., Canada 
35s., the West Indies 45s., South Africa 35s., and 
Australasia nearly £8. Thus three or four millions 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 149 

of English folk in Australasia consumed more Eng- 
lish goods than 50 million Germans, and nearly as 
much as upwards of 60 million Americans. To put 
the matter in another way, as Sir Rawson Rawson, 
or it may have been Mr. de Labilliere, originally 
put it. As a customer, one Australian is worth to 
the, British artisan 16 Americans, and one South 
African is worth seven or eight Germans. Erom 
these figures it can be seen at once how fallacious 
was the old idea that the migration of a British 
subject from the Empire's metropolis to a British 
colony was a loss to Great Britain. His continuance 
in this country would have meant that either in his 
own person he would have become worse than a non- 
productive factor, in other words a person charge- 
able on the rates, and as such an incubus rather than 
a gain to the community, or it would have meant 
that, having regard to the congested state of the dis- 
trict from which he went forth, his continued pres- 
ence would have forced some other unit into the 
ranks of pauperism. 

From this it may be fu.rther seen how incal- 
culably the Kingdom individually, as apart from 
the Empire collectively — though the benefit to the 
Empire would be great if less direct, since the pros- 
perity and well-being of the Motherland surely re- 
acts on the colonies — would gain by the removal of 
her surplus peoples from the British Isles, where 
they are unable to expand and prosper, owing to the 
pressure of population and the stress of competi- 



150 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tion, and their plantation in expanses favourable 
to their development, where in due season they would 
become the customers of the kinsfolk they have left 
behind them. 

It is the more essential to insist upon the advan- 
tages of colonial trade since, as I have said, its 
recent development, despite the vast increase of ter- 
ritory in Africa, has not been so continuous or sat- 
isfactory as all would desire. In 1887 I find myself 
writing : " The aggregate total trade of England with 
her colonies is five times larger than that of every 
Continental country possessing colonies with those 
colonies. The colonies are not only among our best 
customers now, they are daily growing better cus- 
tomers. In the twelve years between 1872 and 1884 
our trade with foreign nations has decreased 23 per 
cent., while our trade with the colonies has increased 
20 per cent. That trade follows the flag, is due to 
many reasons, reasons of convenience, reasons of sen- 
timent and association, but above all to the fact that 
the commerce of a nation has to look to the navy of 
that nation for protection.'' The figures given in 
substantiation of the contention that trade with the 
colonies was increasing, we're true enough then; but 
they are no longer true. Between 1875 and 1895, 
the ratio of increase with the colonies has, to put 
it at the best, remained stationary, whereas Brit- 
ish trade with the United States rose 38 per cent, 
during those twenty years. 

Still it is true, as Sir John Eobinson said in 'his 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 151 

admirable address, " The Colonies and the Cen- 
tury," that " as the century closes, the chief volume 
of colonial produce flows to home markets; and it 
can still be said that the British consumer, whether 
at home or in the colonies, does most of his business 
with the British producer.'' May he long continue 
to do so; for it is useless for the patriotic English- 
man to blink the fact that the great hope of his 
country as a trading community lies within the area 
peopled by nations speaking his language. The 
Englishman, whether home or colonial born, has a 
rooted objection to acquiring the mastery of foreign 
tongues; and as a consequence is being beaten in 
every foreign market, save the United States, by 
foreign competitors, especially by the Germans, who 
are born linguists. It would be to step outside the 
scope of this volume, to say more than has already 
been said of the hurt done to British commerce by 
foreign, especially by German, competition ; but the 
report of the Board of Trade inquiry into the devel- 
opment of British trade, proved conclusively that 
in many foreign markets Germany is persistently 
and surely ousting British enterprise, and diverting 
from us trade which we have been accustomed to 
regard as our heritage, or in any case to be had by 
us for the asking. It is the same story everywhere — 
lack of pliability and adaptability, and ignorance of 
the language of our actual or potential customers, 
are doing us immense damage. Erom Turkey, Po- 
land, China, even from France and Italy, the same 



152 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tales come. The German and the Belgian stoop to 
conquer: the Englishman will not. 

To this melancholy fact has to be added, as I have 
shown, that other disquieting fact, that to-day onr 
rivals are beginning to invade our own especial tillage 
— our own colonial markets, and are threatening the 
monopoly; for in a large measure we still enjoy it, 
of those markets. As patriotic Englishmen, with 
a sneaking sympathy for old-fashioned methods of 
trade, in which a certain dignity and reserve temper 
pushfulness of the ugliest character, one is com- 
pelled to side with our comniercial travellers and 
agents against their successful rivals. But as just 
men weighing the facts of the case, we are con- 
strained to admit that our manufacturers and mer- 
chants and their agents deserve to suffer, because they 
refuse to bend to circumstances, and to march with 
the times; because, too, they have become careless 
in maintaining that high standard of excellence 
which used to characterise British goods. 

If, as we may hope will not be the case, the success- 
ful invasion of Great Britain's especial markets — the 
colonial markets — continues, the outlook for British 
trade will be dark indeed. It is obvious that Ger- 
many's new-found zeal for colonial possessions, takes 
the shape of wishing to procure for herself the mon- 
opoly of colonial markets already existing. Ger- 
many is rapidly becoming a great manufacturing 
and industrial nation. She wants an outlet for her 
products, and for her people. The various efforts 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 153 

made bj the German Empire to acquire a footing 
in South Africa cannot escape our notice. Mr. Cecil 
Rhodes frustrated her designs in Matabeleland and 
Basutoland in the nick of time, and the prompt man- 
ner in which this nation cried ^^ Hands off ! " when 
Germany revealed her designs on the Transvaal, 
checkmated the scheme of the Colonial party at Ber- 
lin, which had hoped to possess itself of a ready- 
made colony in South Africa. 

Fortunately the Imperial Government is now 
fully alive to the absolute importance to us of such 
markets as we have long possessed, and of those 
which have been added to the Empire in recent 
years; and England is not likely to forego her hold 
on them. The colonies themselves are proving to- 
day that they are no less determined that no part of 
the Empire shall slip from our grasp. Sir W. Lyne, 
the Premier of I^ew South Wales, said, in bidding 
farcAvell to a contingent of 'New South Welshmen 
embarking for South Africa : ^^ You will show the 
world that the Empire is united; and that we are 
prepared to defend her and our homes." This is 
the colonial spirit to-day, as it is the home spirit. 
And it is based on material as well as on spiritual 
things. Australia, for instance, has a growing trade 
with the Cape. Cape Colony — which would be dis- 
tinctly menaced, politically as well as commercially, 
if any European power obtained a hold on the Trans- 
vaal, or if the Transvaal succeeded in asserting its 
independence of Great Britain — is among the best 
customers of the United Kingdom. 



154 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

To come to actual figures and to begin with ex- 
ports: We find that Cape Colony has her best cus- 
tomer in the United Kingdom, 95 per cent, of her 
exports coming to us. The percentage of ^ew 
Zealand's exports home is also high, standing at T8 
per cent. Cejlon comes next at 70 per cent. ; ITatal, 
Victoria, British Guiana and Canada at 52 per cent. ; 
South Australia and the other colonies following 
on a sliding scale, until we reach Jamaica and the 
Straits Settlements with a percentage of 21 per 
cent, respectively. The average for all the colonies 
is 47 per cent. Of course the particular circum- 
stances of the colonies have much to do with the 
trend of their trade. Groups of colonies, such as 
the Australasian group, which lie near each other, 
naturally trade largely among themselves ; while col- 
onies which touch foreign countries, as Canada 
touches the United States, must of necessity do a 
large trade with their immediate neighbours. 

It is curious, that when we come to consider colo- 
nial and Indian imports, we discover the average 
for all the colonies of trade done with the United 
Kingdom is again 47 per cent., exactly the same pro- 
portion as in the case of exports from India and the 
colonies, while the trade of British possessions as be- 
tween themselves is 27 per cent. Again Cape Colony 
heads the list. Her imports from the Motherland 
stand at 80 per cent, and ^NTatal's at 76 per cent. In- 
dia comes next at 71 per cent, l^ew Zealand follows 
at 65 per cent. The Australian colonies range be- 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 155 

tween 49 per cent, and 25 per cent., Canada at 36 
per cent., E'ewfoundland at 20 per cent., and the 
Straits Settlements at 14 per cent. Obviously and 
on the face of them, the statistics in some of these 
cases are misleading; South Australia, for instance, 
receives 25 per cent, of her imports from Great 
Britain, and 67 per cent, from British possessions. 
Of these last, doubtless a considerable portion are 
English goods, which arrive in Australia at the ports 
of neighbouring colonies. Of course the possession 
by Great Britain of the largest mercantile navy of 
the world, and the fact that London primarily, and 
in a secondary degree the other great ports of the 
Kingdom, are centres of distribution for much of 
the produce of Europe, must be taken into these 
accounts. We are not therefore, to conclude that 
all the imports from the United Kingdom to Brit- 
ish colonies are British goods. Still the discount to 
be deducted on this head is not considerable. 

In estimating the growth of imperial trade, it 
is not sufficient however, to take into account merely 
the trade of the Mother Country with the colonies, 
or the trade of the colonies between themselves. In 
1887, the imports into colonial possessions amounted 
to 203 millions and the exports to 205 millions. 
Thus, the total trade, £408,000,000, was rather more 
than double the trade carried on with the United 
Kingdom, which stood at £186,000,000. Ten years 
later, in 1897, this trade had increased by over a 
hundred thousand pounds; the grand total exceed- 



156 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ing 519 millions, as against 745 millions, which 
roughly represents the trade of the United King- 
dom. It will be seen at a glance how important the 
commerce of our dependencies and colonies has be- 
come. If we deduct about half the total for the 
trade of the Indian Empire and Eastern Asia, for 
this amounts to £260,000,000 approximately, we 
have a total of nearly £260,000,000, representing 
the trade of Canada, British Africa, Australasia 
and other colonies, countries which contain about 
ten million inhabitants of European origin, together 
with about fifty million aboriginal or coloured 
peoples. 

It is impossible for the most unimaginative per- 
son to be indifferent to the significance of these 
figures. One need not rhapsodise over them, since 
they are merely the shorthand marks of so much 
material progress. Still it is unfortunately too true 
that, given a civilised people, there can be no gen- 
eral happiness, no high standard of life, thought and 
conduct without a reasonable distribution of wealth. 
Individuals undoubtedly can and do prove the ex- 
ception; and the day may come when nations — men 
having learned what " benefits men and to contract 
their wishes," to quote Landor, in other words, to 
understand that real happiness lies in having few 
external wants, and in simplicity of life — will attain 
to that true philosophy which is now, so far as na- 
tions are concerned, chiefly to be found among semi- 
savage peoples — the Zulus, for instance. But in the 



THE TENDEisrCIES OF INTEMMPERIAL TRADE. 15 Y 

case of nations wliich have accustomed themselves to 
a moderately high standard of living, the absence of 
material prosperity must mean that those people are 
unable to attain to their proper standard of life col- 
lectively: intellectually and spiritually. Obviously 
the converse is equally true. A plethora of riches, 
especially when those riches come suddenly, stunts 
a community, and as much, if not more than poverty, 
dwarfs it intellectually and spiritually. Excess of 
riches leads to luxury; and luxury to enervation, 
degeneracy, sloth and flappiness. I have just shown 
how too easy times are affecting the commercial in- 
terests of Great Britain ; and how the over-confidence 
born of inherited, rather than personally-attained 
advantages, is robbing us of our own markets. I 
shall have to show hereafter how the like causes 
and the like results have affected our efficiency in 
the field of battle. 

However viewed, this growth of the trade of 
Greater Britain is exceedingly significant. It may 
be slipping from us, but that is not yet; and as it 
stands, it is a tribute to the persistence and energy 
of our race in the past. It should give us heart of 
grace to believe that our sons and daughters will 
be equal to meeting the competition which, in a 
moment of restfulness and the consequent relaxation 
of vigilance, has invaded their domain. 

It would be beyond the scope of this work, and 
it would certainly be beyond my powers, to attempt 
to give in minute detail — the detail for instance 



168 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

which we find in Sir Rawson Rawson's exhaustive 
Synopsis of the Tariff and Trade of the British 
Empire — a work of the utmost value and interest 
prepared by the late Sir Eawson for the informa- 
tion of the Imperial Federation League — an analysis 
of the various tariffs in force in the different col- 
onies. Sir Rawson Rawson's work, however, sup- 
plies me with several leading facts explanatory of 
the growth of Imperial Trade which it will be proper 
for me to include in this rapid survey of the trade 
of the Empire ; a survey which makes no pretension 
to being elaborate in the sense in which Sir Rawson's 
marvellous synopsis is elaborate. My aim is quite 
different ; the extent of my ambition being to convey, 
in the manner of the impressionist, a truthful and 
suggestive picture, so far as it goes, of nineteenth 
century progress. Sir Rawson Rawson, in dealing 
with the exports and imports of the Empire, gives 
the total trade of the British Empire for 1885 at 
920 millions. This total was subject to deduction 
for trans-shipments from port to port in the United 
Kingdom, trade which in the returns had been 
reckoned twice, and bullion which had been counted 
twice over. On the other hand this total did not 
include the shipping trade, the coasting trade, and 
the extensive trade carried on by British shipping 
between the ports of foreign countries. 

It is when we come to study the statistics of tariffs 
imposed respectively by the 44 colonies and depend- 
encies of the British Empire that we are amazed at 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-lMPERIAL TRADE. 159 

the extraordinary evidence they supply of the adapt- 
ability and independence of our race, and the 
downright way in which English communities ar- 
range fiscal matters to suit their convenience at the 
moment, with a quiet indifference to the shibbo- 
leths of pedants and doctrinaires. In any case, 
a calm examination of these statistics is enough to 
dismay the advocates of a common British Tariff. 
These enthusiasts, to use Sir Rawson's words, ^^ can 
have but little knowledge of the difficulties which 
render such an arrangement impossible while the 
present system of taxation exists throughout the Em- 
pire.'' " The majority of those," he adds, " who 
desire closer commercial union, and believe it to be 
within the range of practical politics, have a very 
indistinct knowledge of the obstacles they would 
have to encounter, in coming to any adjustment 
which would be acceptable to the many members of 
the Empire.'' These are hard words, but they are 
true ones. 

There is this general resemblance, with all 
their diversity, between the tariffs of the vari- 
ous colonies. They all admit free from duty 
any product which may be necessary for the 
purpose of encouraging local manufacturers; and 
they tax heavily any product which might com- 
pete with any natural or cultivated fruit of the 
soil in their respective colonies. For the rest, co- 
lonial duties are for the most part imposed in view 
of providing a revenue. As Sir Rawson Rawson 



160 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

very sagely remarked, " In newly-settled and sparse- 
ly populated countries, such as most of the British 
possessions, the most convenient, if not the only 
source of revenue is indirect taxation; and the most 
certain, regular and abundant source of such rev- 
enue, the duties most easily levied and the least 
felt, and consequently the most acceptable to the 
population, are, beyond doubt, the customs duties.'' 
And let it be added, many an Englishman resident 
within the United Kingdom, to whom the vexatious 
iniquity of the income tax is a sore trial, obliging 
him to lay bare his losses in trade or professional 
disappointments — the successes of over-reaching 
rivals and enemies' — envies the colonist, who in most 
cases is free from the insolent infliction of a tax on 
his income, a tax often exacted and dishonestly re- 
tained on an income which exists only on paper. The 
colonies, as I have said, adopt just such means of 
raising the funds necessary for their upkeep as may 
seem to them expedient. They tax themselves to 
meet their public needs ; and in doing so are guided 
by local conditions and interests, which in new com- 
munities, necessarily in a state of flux, need to be 
constantly changed to meet fluctuating circum- 
stances; for the most cursory acquaintance with the 
more recent history of the I^orth American, Aus- 
tralasian and African colonies is sufficient to show 
that the conditions of life are constantly changing 
in all those great groups of colonies. The discovery 
of gold and precious stones, the opening up and irri- 



•THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 161 

gation of waste lands ; the successful introduction of 
fresh industries — wool growings for instance — may 
completely metamorphose pre-existing conditions, 
and render a reversal of the basis of taxation nec- 
essary. 

I submit that in this readiness to adapt taxation 
to altered circumstances, the colonies teach the 
United Kingdom a lesson. Here, at home, the land 
continues to bear burthens which can only be re- 
garded as ridiculous, when we consider how entirely 
its capacity to bear them has altered since the Corn 
Laws were abolished. Of course the United King- 
dom in adopting direct taxation, and in admitting 
food and raw material free, is animated by the de- 
sire to keep the population well fed; and if we ex- 
clude the residuum, and the vagrant classes, well fed 
it is. Man for man, the Englishman consumes 121 
lbs. of meat yearly as against 40 lbs. consumed by 
the Irish, 75 by the Germans, 70 by the Trench, 60 
by the Austrians and 56 by the Belgians. So that 
the Englishman consumes twice as much meat in 
the year as the Austrian. 

This is no doubt a national gain up to a certain 
point, though the necessity for so large a meat diet 
tells adversely in moments of crisis; witness the 
war now in progress. Moreover, allowing all food 
stuffs to enter the Kingdom untaxed, tends, as I have 
already shown, to keep thousands, not to say mil- 
lions, of inhabitants in these islands who ought 
properly to leave them. It has resulted too, as we 
11 



162 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

have said, in the depletion of our fields, and in the 
herding together of our people in the towns, and in 
the consequent lowering of the standard of the coun- 
try's manhood. The population of London in 1841 
was less than two millions. It is now nearly five 
millions. Manchester, Glasgow, and indeed all the 
great towns of the North and the Midlands, have 
nearly trebled themselves during the same period. 
But it seems vain for our publicists to point out the 
manifold evils resulting from this unnatural state 
of affairs. Mr. Charles Booth has brought statis- 
tics to bear on the evil; his figures are so carefully 
arrived at, and so judiciously marshalled that there is 
no gainsaying his conclusions. At the very moment 
of writing, I am struck by an article in the Morning 
Post from the pen of Miss Frances Macnab, which, 
although it does not give fresh facts — that were im- 
possible, since scores of writers of distinction have 
been hammering away at the evil for a decade or 
more — ^states the evil succinctly and vividly, and 
shall therefore be quoted here. 

" The time," says Miss Macnab, " when men rose 
^ by the ladder of the land ' from being yeomen to 
squires, and after a generation or so became lords 
of the manor, is long past. We have accepted the 
ruin of the agricultural industry as a condition in- 
cident to feeding towns as cheaply as possible. . . . 
It is possible to stand at the present time in villages 
which depression has half depleted of their inhabit- 
ants, and gaze over the long, broad valley in whose 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 163 

hollow rises the smoke and glare of the largest city 
on earth — a city which adds to its East End fifteen 
miles of new streets in a single year. Then some- 
thing happens which is positively comic, so curiously 
complex are our aims and so circuitous our ways of 
arriving at points. Then half-deserted villages are 
presently rendered hideous by the strains of a 
cracked horn delivering itself in a somewhat hazy 
rendering of a vulgar music-hall song. Then there 
appears from round the corner four tired, patient- 
looking old horses dragging after them a van 
tightly packed with a foreign element. These are 
Cockneys, who have come for a spell in the coun- 
try, which consists in lavishing both time and money 
on the licensed victualler, who, to them at all events, 
has taken the place of both squire and parson. We 
hear of constant appeals for children's country holi- 
days, but will a holiday now and then effect even 
as much as an old age pension to rectify the misery 
of child life in city slums ? '' Miss Macnab then 
proceeds to show that the large increase in our chari- 
ties, the hospitals, waifs and stray societies, lunatic 
asylums, reformatories, training schools and the like, 
whether supported by the rates or by charities, ^^ bear 
witness to the influence on the minds and bodies of 
our people under the increase of enormous cities.'' 
" N"or will," she continues, " the matter end there ; 
for the character of the nation must ultimately be 
affected by this change from rural to urban condi- 
tions, Man cannot live by bread alone, however 



164 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

cheap it be ; and where, after all, is the economy in 
emptying our villages into the towns to corrupt and 
half kill our people, and then bring them back to 
lunatic asylums, hospitals and reformatories to rem- 
edy the troubles created by want of wholesome 
living/^ 

I have quoted Miss Macnab because she has given 
in terse and nervous English, a picture as well as a 
description of the condition of affairs resulting from 
the depletion of the country, and the overcrowding 
of the towns, which, despite the fact that rigorous 
compression has somewhat impaired its excellence, 
it would be difficult to excel. In my own lumbering 
fashion I have been saying the same thing for years ; 
and as a man whose life has been about equally di- 
vided between town and country, I know that Miss 
Macnab's picture is in no wise exaggerated. 

It will be seen how increasingly important it is for 
a fresh stimulus to be given to emigration to the colo- 
nies, and migration back to the fields of Old England, 
when we come to coolly count the cost to the man- 
hood of the nation of this continual drain vipon its 
muscle and sinew which that great ceS;Spool, London, 
exacts from the country. Eor London gives nothing 
back from what it takes. It simply consumes. And 
it is all very well for Mr. Mulhall to scoff at what he 
is pleased to call " arm-chair politicians,^' who, as 
he says, " cannot reflect without apprehension on the 
fact that we are dependent on foreign countries for 
our bread supply." His own figures show that be- 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 165 

tween 1837 and 1840 the yearly output of native 
wheat averaged 2,800,000 tons, and that this aver- 
age had declined to 2,720,000 tons between 1861 
and 1870, and to 1,270,000 between 1891 and 1895, 
and this despite the great increase in the popula- 
tion. Wheat, it is allowed, shows the greatest de- 
cline; but for all that the farming interests gener- 
ally have shoA\ai so rapid a decline, that there was a 
loss of 450 millions sterling between 1880 and 1895. 
According to Mr. Mulhall we can afford to take this 
loss with philosophic equanimity, since the increase 
in wealth in all other pursuits has been steady and 
uniform. To my mind this argument is of the shal- 
lowest description; it is impudently shallow. It is 
not merely that there has been no aggregate loss as 
to wealth; it is that there has been an incalculable 
loss as to welfare. The man born and bred in the 
country is not only ten times as happy as the man 
condemned to pass his days in town ; but his joys are 
simpler, and his sufferings are less poignant. He is 
twice or three times the man. The mere criterion 
of increased wages is a valueless test. Town brings 
the masses into contact with vicious delights. They 
live in surroundings as tainted morally, as the air 
they breathe is vitiated. From the point of view 
of growth in trade, in exports, in wealth, no doubt 
the depletion of the fields and the' decay of agricul- 
ture may be ignored, since material prosperity in 
the aggregate has vastly increased. But this surely 
is a superficial view. 



166 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

The decrease in the agricultural population in 
the half century between 1841 and 1891 amounts to 
about 175,000, while the increase in the number 
of persons engaged in manufacture and trade during 
that period, reaches the amazing total of 6,415,000. 
Clearly the natural increase of the rural districts 
has gone, and more than gone, to swell the towns ; 
for in 1841 the relation between the agricultural 
population to the commercial was as 2 to 1; now it 
is as 1 to 6.28. 

That this is a satisfactory condition of affairs, it 
would need a great deal of hardihood to maintain. 
In a later chapter I shall have no difficulty in show- 
ing that the lot of the dweller in the country districts 
is vastly better now than in the earlier part of the 
century ; and I have now no hesitation in appealing 
to the statistics and personal evidence cited in this 
chapter, ^^ The Good Old Days," to maintain and 
emphasise the contention that, from the point of view 
of securing the greatest happiness of the greatest 
number, and from those national points of view al- 
ready emphasised, it is of vital importance that, so 
far as the Empire's metropolis is concerned, the 
people should be retained on the land. It may be 
objected that the withdrawal of the people from 
agricultural pursuits, and their employment in 
manufactures, has indirectly been the means whereby 
the rural population has been able to procure a larger 
measure of comfort, in that the output of textiles 
and hardwares for which the foreigner has paid 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 167 

handsomely, has resulted in a national profit, and 
by increasing the wealth and taxable capabilities of 
the people as a whole, has enabled successive gov- 
ernments to remove duties from those articles of 
daily use, tea, coffee and sugar, let us say, thereby 
placing them within the reach of the rural popula- 
tion. 

So far as it goes, this contention is sound. But 
for the privilege of ,supplying the world with all 
manner of goods, in which shoddy plays no incon- 
siderable part, and the people, including the rural 
population, with a good deal of cheap and nasty 
finery, are we to break the back of the nation ? The 
force of my argument is in nowise destroyed, because 
the counter-argument confuses a greater with a less- 
er evil. I say, finally, that whatever the cost to the 
people may be — and I dispute the necessity for these 
supposed sacrifices, since a falling off in the supply 
of factory labour would immediately stimulate the 
inventor to increase the efficiency of his labour-sav- 
ing machinery — it is essential that the bulk of the 
people should be kept upon the land, or in any case 
should be kept in touch with the land. Else national 
decadence must inevitably ensue. 

Factory life, any form of town life, continued 
through several generations means, as I have already 
said, the extinction of the family or race engaged 
in it. It may be ever so true that in order to main- 
tain the lead in the commerce of the world ; it is nec- 
essary to employ a large proportion of the muscle 



168 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

and sinew of the nation in factory work. But the 
British race will discover that it cannot push the 
pace too fast. European races which have entered 
the field of industrial enterprise as our rivals, will 
also discover that they must not force the pace. 
That, in other words, it will not profit them if they 
gain the trade of the whole world, and in doing so 
sap the spring of national life — the virility of the 
people. 

This is not a matter which merely concerns the 
United Kingdom. Indirectly it is, of course, ob- 
vious that it concerns the whole Empire: it has a 
direct bearing upon each particular colony. Hither- 
to, the colonies have relied upon* a constant stream of 
the most adventurous and self-reliant factors of the 
rural populations to strengthen and establish their 
communities. What colonial-born Englishmen are 
doing in the field of battle now — the Australasians 
and Canadians are proving themselves to be equal 
to the Boers in finesse and resource, and are infusing 
brave but inexperienced English soldiers with their 
own admirable qualities; — what they have done on 
the cricket field, and in the realms of sport generally, 
would put me to an open shame were I to say any- 
thing which could be construed into disparagement 
of their splendid qualities. Still it is absolutely 
true to assert that the men who have made the most 
lasting impression on public life, and have had the 
widest influence in creating the history of the re- 
spective colonies, have been of English birth. The 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 169 

reason for this is sufficiently obvious. As time goes 
on internal causes will remove this phenomenon; 
so indeed will external causes, for the right kind 
of man for colonial life, the country-bred man, will 
not be forthcoming from Great Britain. Koughly 
speaking, the average town-bred man, save in the 
case of highly skilled artisans, is small gain to any 
colony; frequently he turns out to be an incubus. 

That a large proportion of British emigrants who 
now go to British colonies, are not of the right sort 
is made obvious by the fact that since 1891, or there- 
abouts, half of such immigrants have returned to 
the United Kingdom. ITow, seeing that each able- 
bodied male or female settler is valued in the Brit- 
ish colonies as equivalent to the addition of £200 
to the wealth of the colony in which the settlement 
is made, it is evident that it is only on the assump- 
tion, that from a colonial point of view, a large pro- 
portion of the human goods sent to the colonies from 
the Mother Country were damaged, that their return 
home is to be explained. Had they been sound, the 
colonies would have made them welcome, would 
have made an effort to retain them, and would have 
succeeded in doing so. Of course there are excep- 
tions to this rule. I have already referred in these 
pages to the fact that some of the colonies are ex- 
ceedingly shortsighted in the matter of encouraging 
colonisation ; and that for purely sectional, selfish 
and non-national reasons, the democracy has excluded 
newcomers because their rivalry might tend to lower 
the price of labour. 



170 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

In considering, as I am pledged to consider in 
these pages, the British Empire as a whole, it will 
be seen how important it is to that whole, and espe- 
cially during the next few generations, during which 
no colony can afford to be indifferent to immigration, 
to keep the standard of the British immigrant at 
as high a level as possible. Permanent deteriora- 
tion in that standard would be a serious drawback 
to the colonies. How serious it would be to some 
of them, must appear from the statement a l^ew 
Zealand colonist (Mr. C. Pharazyn) recently made 
at a meeting of the Koyal Colonial Institute. I 
have already referred to this statement, the impor- 
tance of which cannot be exaggerated. Mr. Pharazyn 
says that next to France, I^ew Zealand has the low- 
est birth rate of the world, and that as a fact the rate 
was steadily decreasing. Thus, in 1882 the birth 
rate per 1,000 was 37.33, and in 1898 it was 25.75. 
Obviously Mr. Pharazyn is right in regarding this 
as a most serious matter. 

It is imperative for the colonies to develop their 
lands that they may help to contribute to the food 
supply of the world. It is therefore imperative that 
they should receive the class of immigrant who is 
able and willing to take part in this work. Conse- 
quently none but a socialist would contend that the 
decadence of the agricultural population of the 
United Kingdom was a matter which had no concern 
for the colonist. On the contrary, it is a matter of 
the most vital importance to him. 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 171 

Meanwhile, until some sensible readjustment of 
the fiscal policy of this country gives the agricul- 
turist a chance of success, the Empire as a whole 
must begin to turn its eyes toward Outer Britain 
rather than Inner Britain as the future field for the 
development of our race; though, unless some read- 
justment is arranged, some system protecting agri- 
culture at home and fostering it in the colonies, there 
will be a very short future for our race. To speak 
of a readjustment of fiscal imposts and economical 
taxes, does not imply that the writer has any kind 
of belief in the immediate possibility of a uniform 
tariff throughout the Empire. A close study of Sir 
Rawson Rawson's statistics is sufficient to satisfy 
the most enthusiastic advocate of a British Zoll- 
verein, that such a system is impossible, not only now, 
but probably for all time. Also any heavy taxation 
of foreign corn in order to benefit the farmers of 
the United Kingdom and of the colonies is out of 
the question. But a moderate tax so as to give the 
nation's farmers a chance — and when I speak of the 
nation I mean the whole Empire — is, pace the Cob- 
den Club, an entirely sane and sensible suggestion, 
and one which it behoves the Legislature to trans- 
late speedily into fact. 

So far however, as this vexed question can be 
arbitrarily treated, this question as to how we are 
to maintain our commercial supremacy, and yet keep 
the physique of the nation up to a high standard, 
let us see to it that we never drift into that miser- 



172 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

able morass in which the wheels of progress must be 
permanently arrested, and in which, being once in, 
it will profit us nothing to discover that our dis- 
tress is due to having put the cart before the horse. 
It is clearly a case of putting the cart, that is 
the merchandise of the Kingdom, before the horse, 
that is to say, the pulling power, the virility and 
strength of the country, if we allow our thoughts 
to centre on huge and increasing trade returns, while 
neglecting to maintain the physical standard of the 
people. That we are doing this just now, I am abso- 
lutely certain, despite the figures forced upon us, 
many of them obviously false and misleading, by 
that school of Cockney optimists which views all pub- 
lic questions through its own delusive lenses, through 
which it can see no progress, save mere material 
progress. 

The present writer may perhaps be pardoned if 
he appeals to a record dating from boyhood to sub- 
stantiate a claim to sound imperialism ; but it seems 
to him little short of a mystery how any self-re- 
specting Englishman can sympathise with that shal- 
low school of writers and speakers which, deceived 
by the bulk of our trade, dance to the tune of " Eule 
Britannia," forgetful that much of that vaunted trade 
represents base metal. There is nothing very noble 
in flooding the world with shoddy; and it is to be 
feared much of our export trade is not unfairly de- 
scribed as coming under that denomination. Again, 
however small one's sympathy may be with the out- 



THE TENDENCIES OF INTER-IMPERIAL TRADE. 173 

and-out believers in the democracy, or in their right 
and capacity to rule — and manifestly no such sym- 
pathies can be fastened on to me — the student of his- 
tory must recognise the fact that an effete democracy 
is a far more serious danger to a nation than an effete 
aristocracy. After all the basis of a ruling aris- 
tocracy is in the people, from whom through various 
stages of development the men fit to rule must be 
evolved. If you destroy the people, you have de- 
stroyed the sources from which the men who make 
a nation great and powerful in relation to other na- 
tions must be drawn. Therefore let us beware 
here at home and yonder in the colonies of that mad 
pursuit of trade and wealth, which blinds the eyes 
of a people to the price paid for their attainment. 
In other words, look to the health, moral and physi- 
cal, of the masses. This can only be done by keeping 
a large proportion of the people in and on the fields. 
In recent years Great Britain has ignored this neces- 
sity; and in estimating the progress of the Empire, 
one is bound to admit that a considerable discount, 
though the bill has not yet become due, will have 
to be allowed for the loss of stamina and staying- 
power which the neglect of this quite elementary law 
of material well-being has inflicted on the nation. 

I am aware that in, the eyes of many ardent im- 
perialists the writer who ventures to look beneath 
appearances, and who suggests a somewhat different 
reading of those figures upon which it is the habit 
of the rampant-lion school to dilate with unalloyed 



174 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

satisfaction, is held to be guilty of something like 
high treason to the Empire, and to be deserving of 
severe reprobation. 

I take a different view of a patriot's duty. The 
progress of the Empire has, of course, been all that 
is ordinarily claimed for it. It has been colossal, 
phenomenal. But in all businesses there must be a 
profit and loss account; and it behoves the control- 
lers of the business of the Empire to see to it that 
they do not bring it to ruin by taking no reckoning 
of the steady deterioration in stock and in working 
plant — the sinews and mnscles of the people — ^which 
so far as the metropolis of the Empire is concerned— 
the United Kingdom — is steadily resulting from 
the vicious economic conditions under which the 
fiscal policy of the Empire is conducted. 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 175 



CHAPTER VIII. 

GROWTH OF wealth: REVENUE AND DEBT. 

At the beginning of this century the revenue of 
the outlying portions of the Empire amounted to 
31 millions, and of this total India contributed the 
bulk; not more than 3^ millions representing the 
revenue of the various colonies. It would appear 
that when the Queen came to the throne, the reve- 
nues of Greater Britain exhibited some shrinkage 
from these figures. The figures for that year (1837) 
for the whole Empire are set down at 75 millions, 
of which total the United Kingdom contributed some 
50 millions and the Indian and Colonial Empire 25 
millions. In 1850 the revenue of India was 27 J 
millions, and that of all the other British possessions 
3 1 millions. To-day (1897) the total revenue 
of the Empire amounts to 225 millions, of which the 
United Kingdom supplies less than half, or in actual 
figures, 110 millions. 

Here then, is a record of progress of a truly re- 
markable character. A feature of the highest sig- 
nificance is discovered in the fact that the self-gov- 
erning and Crown colonies now raise a revenue 
nearly equal to that of India; for out of the total, 



176 Progress of British empire. 

£115,000,000, no less than 62^ millions must be 
credited to India, and 52^ millions to Australasia, 
Canada, and the African, West Indian and other col- 
onies. Here assuredly is a record of progress which 
must give pause to the most persistent advocate of 
a restricted England, meaning, as it does, that the 
isolated units who have gone out from these islands 
and planted the flag of England in distant lands, 
have amply justified themselves by adding enor- 
mously to the aggregate wealth of our race. Obvi- 
ously a revenue of upwards of 50 millions annually 
means an immense diffusion of wealth, and of such 
happiness as wealth can bring. 

It may be true that under an entirely different 
economical system, any one of those admirable sys- 
tems — admirable paper systems — devised by humani- 
tarian doctrinaires, the various schools of socialismj 
so called, whose propagandas have been so widely 
promulgated in recent years, Great Britain and Ire- 
land, especially Ireland, could and should support 
a much larger population than that which they actu- 
ally support under existing economic systems. But 
the practical politician knows that it is impossible 
to arbitrarily remodel institutions, or to control tend- 
encies which have grown out of the clash of diverse 
interests, and of the activity, for good or evil, of suc- 
cessive generations; individuals, classes and genera- 
tions striving to adapt themselves to circumstances 
quite as strenuously and persistently, if not more 
so, than they have striven to make circumstances 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 177 

adapt themselves to them. That, in fact, revolu- 
tions can never be successful permanently, unless 
they occur at that penultimate moment when the 
changes which they actually register have already 
been silently and gradually achieved; the actual 
revolution merely putting an official seal on a deed 
already drawn up and signed by the people. The 
practical politician knows that human aspirations 
and desires in working out their fulfilment, pro- 
ceed along the lines of least resistance; and that 
it is as impossible to give concrete effect to any 
policy; until that policy has been recognised to be 
an actual, or, in any case, is believed to be an actual 
necessity of its well-being by the majority of the na- 
tion. One may stimulate the growth of a growing 
human body by a judicious system of physical cul- 
ture, but we cannot materially hasten the processes 
by which an infant becomes an adult. The foolish 
attempt to do so, is certain to result in the crippling 
or extinction of the organism so treated. 

Similarly, a people cannot be brought on to a 
higher national platform before they are ready to 
climb to it; and the effort to do so may result in 
the crippling or the ruin of that people. It is of 
course scarcely within the province of this work to 
deal with the growth of any particular realm of 
abstract thought; though something may be said as 
to this, in dealing with the intellectual progress of 
the people. All that it is necessary to advance here 
is, that however true it may be that given the accept- 
12 



178 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ance on the part of an earnest minority of those 
noble ideals — equality of responsibility as to work 
and play, together with equality in the distribution 
of wealth — such ideals are outside of the scheme 
of the work-a-day life of the nineteenth century, 
which among the many idols it has set up, has 
set up a standard in living to which the vast major- 
ity of men and women aspire, and the satisfaction 
of which is necessary to their happiness. Wealth 
and material comfort have perhaps been pursued 
less for the sake of the things themselves, than in 
obedience to that all-pervading impulse of rivalry 
and competition which may be taken as the note 
of the century; an impulse which has kept at bay 
the opposing impulse making for a community of 
interests and possessions. Doubtless this has been 
well, for it has supplied the rude force necessary to 
impel men to tear themselves from their homes, and 
go forth into the wastes of the earth to make fresh 
homes in lands where, whether it be true or not that 
there was room and to spare for a vast increase of 
our race at home, such a proposition admitted of no 
gainsaying. 

Therefore it is permissible to point to the mate- 
rial well-being of the colonies, as justifying the ex- 
traordinary sacrifices their acquisition and mainte- 
nance have entailed upon the Mother Country. In 
men and in treasure the processes of acquiring them 
have cost much. To this we must add the no less 
enormous sacrifices they have entailed on the best 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 179 

blood of England; the gallant pioneers who have 
spent themselves freely in securing for Great Britain 
lands whereon she might build her Empire on broad 
and wide foundations. In this enterprise they have 
accounted their lives as nought. So far then, as 
between Mother Country and colonies, the honours of 
the foundation and continuance of the latter are di- 
vided, and remembering this, we know that theBritish 
Empire stands upon a basis of common obligation and 
esteem, as between its metropolis and itaoutlying prov- 
inces, which is a sure guarantee for its endurance. 

But this by the way. To return to the figures with 
which I was dealing. The trade of Australasia with 
the Kingdom is, as we have already seen, only second 
in importance to that of the Indian Empire with the 
Mother Country. Similarly, the revenue of this 
group of colonies is larger than that of any other 
group, reaching in the aggregate £30,000,000. Can- 
ada's revenue is £8,000,000, and that of the Cape 
and Natal, £7,500,000. These figures are worth 
pondering. In fifty years, to quote Sir John Robin- 
son, " the sum total of income throughout the col- 
onies has grown thirteenfold. Eifty years ago, the 
colonies received in their exchequers about one-fif- 
teenth of the amount of the national income. To- 
day the proportion is a trifle less than one-half." 

The ex-Premier of E'atal has also made some ex- 
ceedingly pertinent remarks on the expansion of 
colonial debt. In 1851 the public debt of India 
amounted to 55 millions sterling; it is now 235 mil- 



180 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

lions. During the like period, tlie combined indebt- 
edness of the colonies has advanced from 5^ to 334 
millions. " This stupendous fact/' says Sir John 
Robinson, and I quote his words, because I thor- 
oughly agree with them both in substance and in 
form, and coming as they do from a colonial states- 
man of eminence, they carry great weight — " that 
Greater Britain owes, mainly to British bondholders, 
a sum roundly estimated at 570 millions, may per- 
haps be regarded by political pessimists with fore- 
boding, if not dismay. But what does it mean ? A 
stifling load of national obligations, do you answer ? 
— a crushing burden upon national energies? — 
an exhaustion of national resources, of national 
strength? E'othing of the kind. This huge aggre^ 
gate of funded debt, which gives the holder of every 
pound's worth of stock a vested interest in the Co- 
lonial Empire of Great Britain, means life, expan- 
sion, progress, commercial development and indus- 
trial activity throughout one-fourth of the world's 
surface. It means 36,000 miles of railway, giving 
employment to, who shall say, how many hands of 
British subjects, carrying how many tons of merchan- 
dise and produce, conveying yearly how many mil- 
lions of passengers, and opening up how many 
thousands of square miles of territory in and through 
territories which fifty years ago were untrodden 
and unmapped wilderness ? " Sir John goes on to 
speak in eloquent terms of the triumphs of engineer- 
ing, road-making and irrigation; the erection of 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 181 

public buildings, universities and libraries, forts, 
batteries, lighthouses; the reclamation of waste 
lands, the exploration of mining areas, and a score 
of beneficent works besides represented hj these 
millions, which, as he sajs, mean, " in a word, the 
awaking into life and activity of a sleeping world." 
" These millions of colonial debt are not," he con- 
tinues, " like the millions of old-world national 
debts, the outcome and equivalent of wasteful wars. 
They are rather a solid investment of capital ap- 
plied to eminently reproductive purposes, yielding 
not only in most cases a substantial monetary re- 
turn in the shape of interest actually earned, but 
yielding also, in a measure that cannot be expressed 
by figures, benefits of incomparable value to man- 
kind at large." 

^ow all this is so much plain unvarnished truth, 
and by no means overstates the case. Calm consid- 
eration of these figures, these millions owed by the 
colonies to the bondholders of the Empire, mainly 
to the people of the United Kingdom, should con- 
vince the most sceptical that there are substantial 
reasons, quite outside sentiment, why the colonies 
and the Mother Coimtry should hold together. Year 
by year the reluctance of the investing public to trust 
their savings to the nations of the Continent, in any 
case to the majority of those nations, becomes more 
and more marked. The prudent financial adviser 
warns off intending investors in the funds of Euro- 
pean countries with Punch's admonition, " Don't 1" 



182 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Defaulting lias been already too general; and the 
habit is likely to prove contagious. Colonial securi- 
ties, on the other hand, grow in favour with the bond 
fide British investor. If we add to the several hun- 
dred millions he has lent the colonists, so far as their 
public funds are concerned, the vast sums he has in- 
vested in the industries of these colonies — shipping, 
mining, wine-growing, sheep-farming, ranching and 
so forth — ^we find how intimate the commercial 
connection is between the Motherland and the col- 
onies, and how inalienably the interests of mother 
and daughters are interwoven; in other words, how 
absolutely interdependent the Empire is as to its vari- 
ous parts. This is a strong argument indeed for 
continued harmony; for tightening the bonds, since 
any loosening of those bonds would destroy that 
sense of security which the holders of colonial stock 
feel, by reason of their confidence in Great Britain^s 
willingness and ability to protect the colonies against 
all-comers, while maintaining in perpetuity the con- 
nection which, by common consent, binds mother and 
daughters together. The independence of the col- 
onies would practically mean the relegation of their 
various stocks to a third or fourth place in the stock- 
and-share list, instead of a prominent place in the 
class which Capel Court, in its wisdom, chooses to 
call "gilt-edged securities." All later loans would 
moreover, be required to bear a higher rate of in- 
terest, and would have to be issued at a heavy dis- 
count. Their sponsors would have lost their main- 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 183 

stay; and John Bull would look askance at them. 
The loss to the credit, not only of the colonies, but to 
Great Britain itself, would be enormous, since the 
world regards the United Kingdom as its banker, 
and so far as the colonies go, as a banker who has ad- 
vanced money on property he means to protect. 

On the other hand, if, as the Colonial Premiers 
more than hinted they would like to see effected, 
the Imperial Government should decide to remove 
those restrictions which prevent investment of 
trust funds in colonial stock, the gain to the colonies 
would be enormous. They would then be able to 
borrow money at the rate of 2f per cent, instead of 
at 3| and 4 per cent, as at present. Existing bond- 
holders would reap the advantage in the enhanced 
value of their holdings. 

As recently as August, 1899, Mr. Chamberlain 
took a step in this direction, a most salutary one for 
the Crown colonies, in securing the passage of the 
Colonial Loans Bill. This Bill provides machinery 
for the investment of savings bank funds in co- 
lonial loans guaranteed by the Imperial Government. 
Mr. Labouchere, writing in his journal, was pleased 
to stigmatise the measure as " Doles for Pauper 
Colonies.'' We might let that pass, since the day 
has gone by when Mr. Labouchere can hope to in- 
fluence opinion. The seventeen colonial loans men- 
tioned in the schedule, amounting in the aggregate 
to £3,351,820, were all, according to Mr. Labou- 
chere, loans to insolvent colonies. The Gold Coast, 



184 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Niger Coast Protectorate, Lagos and Sierra Leone 
were one and all, he objected, dependent for their 
revenue upon the duty on imported spirits. l!^ow, 
as a matter of fact, the Colonial Office at the Brus- 
sels Conference on the sale of alcohol to native 
races, held earlier in the year, used its utmost en- 
deavours to get that duty raised so as to make trade- 
gin, if not wholly beyond the reach of the natives, 
at least very difficult to obtain. Again, although 
from the point of view of settlement and colonisa- 
tion, it is questionable whether the West Coast can 
ever be converted to profitable uses — for even the 
comparatively healthy uplands must be approached 
from the fever-haunted coast — it is obvious that 
these co-called insolvent colonies are rich in unde- 
veloped wealth; and that with the growth of the 
country, other revenual resources will become avail- 
able. 

Obviously Jamaica, one of the colonies included 
in the schedule, is in an extremely unsatisfactory 
financial position. But it is, as I have already 
hinted, in the power of the Imperial Government 
to remove the causes of this unsatisfactory state of 
affairs by the imposition of countervailing duties, 
and by extending financial help to enable the ruined 
planters to rear central factories where sugar could 
be crushed by modern machinery by which the cane 
could be made to give double its present yield. Such 
a measure would, I believe, enable the planters to 
■regain for the West Indian Islands their lost pros- 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 185 

perity. The Imperial Government has already done 
something in this last direction, and it will prob- 
ably do more. In any case, as Mr. Chamberlain 
said, in submitting his bill, we already for all prac- 
tical purposes, guarantee the loans of all Crown 
Colonies, because in no circumstances could we al- 
low them to default. Mr. Labouchere's subtle mind 
suggests to him a devious motive in all human 
actions outwardly of a laudable character. It is true 
he stopped short of accusing the agents and repre- 
sentatives of the Crown Colonies of direct robbery; 
but he did not scruple to suggest that these gentle- 
men encouraged expenditure in public works in 
order that they might put contracts in the way of 
their friends; a proceeding which would obviously 
be moral robbery, if not of a kind likely to bring the 
delinquent under the ban of the law. 

Mr. Labouchere's cynicism is quoted, not because 
any value attaches to it, but because it is a sample 
of the tactics of a whole army of crooked-brained 
persons, who do not hesitate to attribute every evil 
design to men engaged in the business of building 
up the Empire. And unquestionably some of the 
mud thrown by these ill-conditioned persons — covert 
traitors — does stick. As a matter of sober fact, the 
Colonial Loans Bill was an entirely proper one. An 
imperial people could do no less than guarantee the 
money borrowed for public purposes, by the less 
prosperous provinces of the Empire, and the intro- 
duction and passage of this bill show that the Gov- 



186 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ernment of Great Britain is awakening to a due 
recognition of the solidarity and interdependence of 
the Empire. 

One welcomes this evidence the more cordially, 
inasmuch as, despite the undoubted growth of co- 
lonial trade in the bulk, it is to be feared, as has 
already been hinted, that inter-imperial trade shows 
tendencies which cannot but give imperial states- 
men pause. Sir John Colomb has recently said 
that, if he read statistics aright, the percentage pro- 
portion of the total of colonial trade which flows to 
and from the Motherland is shrinking rather than 
expanding; and that, although colonial trade as a 
whole was expanding, the tendency was to find mar- 
kets elsewhere; and to forsake the home markets. 
" If,'' said Sir John, " we could arrive at a point 
when the trade of the colonies with foreign coun- 
tries is greater than their trade with the Mother 
Country, the Little Englanders would be armed with 
a strong argument." This is undoubtedly a danger 
ahead. We have seen how the High Priest of Little 
Englandism has endeavoured to thwart the Gov- 
ernment in its efforts to aid struggling Crown Col- 
onies; and nothing would please that party more 
than to find itself in a position to point to the use- 
le&sness of the larger colonies as markets for the 
United Kingdom. 

In considering the growth of the British Empire 
one must of course, take into consideration the ad- 
vance made by its component parts, as well as the 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 187 

advance made, being made, or to be made, or the de- 
cline, as the case may be, in the prosperity of its 
metropolis. It is quite on the cards that Great 
Britain might compensate herself for the loss of co- 
lonial markets by developing her trade with foreign 
nations ; though I have already shown the difficulties 
which lie in the way of such a policy. It may be 
argued, too, that so long as the various parts of the 
British Empire were prospering as units, it would 
not matter whether that prosperity was based on 
an interchange of goods from within the Empire, 
or from without it. For my part, I regard this argu- 
ment as a singularly shallow one ; since any arrange- 
ment which might be made in order to facilitate and 
expand trade between the Mother Country and the 
colonies, would be a permanent one, permanent be- 
cause it would have the tacit guarantee that it was 
perfecting an economic and effective system of com- 
mon defence for all the Anglo-Saxon states included 
in the Empire. How great and increasing the com- 
mon interests of these states are, the figures already 
given, dealing with public interests, suffice to show. 
These interests and possessions are in themselves 
enough to excite the cupidity of foreign states, and 
do excite their cupidity, as the Continent is never 
tired of proclaiming; but when we consider how 
enormous is the wealth already accumulated in the 
colonies by private individuals, and how splendid 
are the potential resources of them all, the necessity 
of conserving and husbanding the strength and re- 



188 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE, 

sistive powers of the British race must be apparent 
to every patriotic citizen of the Empire. 

It would be interesting, were the statistics avail- 
able, to set forth what is the exact wealth, its exact 
total, of Greater Britain. Take Canada, for in- 
stance, and take one branch only of its wealth-pro- 
ducing resources — the agricultural industry. This 
industry has expanded so marvellously, that in 1894 
Canada's farms represented a value of 305 millions 
sterling, against 125 millions in 1861. The area 
covered is now between 35 and 40 million acres, the 
size of the Empire's metropolis, and larger. This 
area is increasing at the rate of 1,400,000 acres 
yearly. Mr. Mulhall estimates that it would take 
700 years to settle the fertile portions of the Do- 
minion, supposing the rate of enclosure to continue 
as in recent years. As Mr. Mulhall further shows, 
in everything, except commerce, Canada has made 
the most favourable progress since the Federal 
Union of 1867. The increase in the grain crop in 
twenty-five years, from 1871 to 1895, was 140 per 
cent. ; in manufactures, 113 per cent. ; in revenue, 
106 per cent. ; and in the value of house property, 
130 per cent. ; for in 1871 this item was valued at 
46^ and in 1895 at 98 millions. Commerce alone 
shows during that period a comparatively small ad- 
vance. In 1871 it totalled 39^ millions, in 1895 
46^, Mr. Mulhall does not hesitate to attribute 
this disparity to the " insane tariff regulations," 
but for which " imports and exports would have 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 189 

increased," he maintains, " in the same degree as 
the agricultural and manufacturing industry." 

Principal Grant has made some extremely perti- 
nent comments on the external trade of Canada. 
" Let it be clearly understood," says this authority, 
'* that Canada has only two markets worth speaking 
of. One of them. Great Britain, she shares on equal 
terms with every foreign nation, and from the other, 
the United States, she is debarred so long as she is 
connected with Britain. The former would be as 
open to her as it is now, were she to unite commer- 
cially with the Republics and against Britain, and 
were she to do so, she would then at once get the 
other market also." Principal Grant was of the 
opinion that the adoption of the preferential system 
for the Empire, would force free trade relations with 
the United States, in that the American voter is so 
keenly alive to the importance of the British mar- 
ket, " the mere prospect of a preference being given 
in it to his rivals, would be enough to bring him into 
a business frame of mind." 

Mr. John Charlton, representing the Liberal party 
in Canada — a party which came into office under the 
leadership of Sir Wilfrid Laurier — to carry free trade 
with the United States, declared some little time 
ago that, should Canada be finally baulked of her 
endeavours to obtain a reciprocity treaty with the 
United States, his party would reduce the balance 
of trade against her by the reduction of American 
imports and would cease to discriminate against the 
Motherland. 



190 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

In any case it is significant that since 1895, when 
the exports and imports of Canada amounted to 46J 
millions, there has been a marked increase in the 
totals. Thus the exports for 1896-7 were a trifle 
under 29 millions, and the imports slightly under 25 
millions, the total of both amounting to £53,772,000. 
For 1897-8 there was a total gain of nearly ten 
millions sterling, the exports amounting to £33,226,- 
200, and the imports to £29,230,400. Thus, in 
three years the trade of the Dominion has increased 
by sixteen millions sterling. 

These figures are sufiicient to prove that, although 
Canada started on her real career as a nation nearly 
a century later than the United States, the day may 
come when her property and wealth will equal that 
of her southern neighbour. Mr. Mulhall says that 
the reason the United States have absorbed more 
than 70 per cent, of British emigration since Britons 
began to emigrate on a scale of any importance, is 
to be found in two main causes. First, that the 
cost of passage was less; and second, because the 
American Government gave free farm lots of 160 
acres to newcomers. For my part, I regard this ex- 
planation as wide of the mark. Those reasons ex- 
isted, no doubt ; but they were small ones in compari- 
son with the fact that the War of Independence gave 
the United States a big advertisement, and established 
for her a prestige which attracted the adventurous; 
that the Eepublic was able to offer ready employ- 
ment, and that she had many years^ start as to rail- 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 191 

ways. Again, Canada was handicapped for many 
years by reason of the preponderance, in such parts 
of the country as was occupied, of colonists of French 
descent. The tie being cut with France, French im- 
migration ceased, while the inhabitants of the set- 
tled districts, being mainly French, the human 
magnet for Englishmen was non-existent in Canada. 

l^evertheless these statements must not be taken 
as indicating a direct sequence of causative events. 
This is not so. Thus the emigration from the 
United Kingdom to British !N^orth America between 
the years 1830 and 1840 reached a total of about 
321,000, during Avhich period scarcely more than 
half as many persons went from these islands to the 
United States. During the next ten years the figures 
were 674,000 to the United States and 428,376 to 
Canada. It is a wonderful fact that, out of these 
totals, Ireland contributed 646,195 souls. Between 
1850 and 1859 British iN'orth America took 258,460 
British immigrants and the United States 1,351,000. 
to which enormous total Ireland contributed over 
a million. 

It is not necessary to follow these figures further ; 
they are introduced here to qualify the statement 
that the United States has invariably taken the bulk 
of British emigration; and to substantiate the in- 
ference that the tide may turn, and Canada become 
the recipient of the crowded-out people of the United 
Kingdom, instead of the United States. It cannot 
be said that there is any present indication that Can- 



192 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ada is destined to add to her wealth in this way, 
since the total emigration to Canada has shown a 
steady falling off since 1888, when the figures were 
34,853. In 1897 they were 15,571. But during 
these years the emigration to the United States 
shows a relative diminution, while more significant 
still, the number of British immigrants returning 
to these islands has, since 1888, averaged about 
100,000 a year. 

I fear however, that it may seem to many that I 
am wandering somewhat from the actual subdivision 
of my gigantic subject. I have erred in this before, 
and I may err again. I claim indulgence. 

The author of the chapter on Colonial Policy 
and Progress in the Reign of Queen Victoria, edited 
by Mr. Humphrey Ward, says, rather ^^ previously,'^ 
that in the 30 years before federation the progress 
of Canada was greater than in the period succeeding 
that achievement. He wrote in 1887, and was there- 
fore comparing unequal periods of time. As he says 
however, the artificial stimulus resulting from the 
Civil War in America (1860-66) had ceased to exer- 
cise any influence in 1887, while the repeal of the 
Eeciprocity Act between Canada and the United 
States checked the development of trade. But that 
Canada has now entered upon a period of rapid 
development for which, since the adoption of the 
Federal Act of 1867, she has been preparing her- 
self, need not be questioned. The purchase of the 
Hudson's Bay rights, comprising Manitoba and the 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 193 

E'orth-West Territories, took place the year after 
the establishment of Federal Union. By this pur- 
chase the Dominion acquired for a mere mess of 
pottage, the paltry sum of £300,000, a magnificent 
inheritance. Even so far as Manitoba alone is con- 
cerned, " you may,'^ to quote Lord Brassey, '^ drive 
a gig for a thousand miles straight over open prairie 
suitable for wheat-growing.'' 

In this alone, her grain-growing potentialities, 
Canada possesses a guarantee of future solvency and 
wealth of the most sterling character. Again, after 
every allowance is made for exaggeration in the 
tales that come to us from the Klondike, that dis- 
trict, and indeed a large portion of Yukon and Brit- 
ish Columbia, are likely to justify the opinion of 
Mr. W. Ogilvie, the Dominion Surveyor and Com- 
missioner for the district. Mr. Ogilvie pronounces 
it to be one of the largest and richest mining areas 
of the world. The output for the 1897-8 season 
was stated to be anything between two to five mil- 
lions. 

Apart from the unquestionable value of these 
gold mines, the North-West provinces have enor- 
mous mineral resources of a humbler description. 
Its vast coal fields are already producing moderately 
good coal, and are showing a profit in working. 

Enough has been said to prove that Canada, in 

any case, has made great and substantial progress 

during the century; and that she is not only capable 

of supporting a population twenty times larger than 

13 



194 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

she at present boasts (5,250,000), but that she may- 
be counted upon to feed the Mother Country for 
centuries to come, and to add materially to the wealth 
of the world. 

In many ways the progress of Australasia is even 
more remarkable than that of Canada. Its aggre- 
gate debt, amounting to something like £200,000,000, 
can be lightly borne, for the greater part of that 
debt is represented by reproductive assets. Accord- 
ing to Mr. Mulhall, 85 millions sterling is the 
moiety of the debt which cannot be so regarded; 
but it is difficult to accept these figures, since Aus- 
tralasia, never having gone to war, and never having 
been threatened by war, can scarcely have incurred 
a debt amounting to 85 millions on objects incapable 
of yielding a return on the money expended. Mr. 
Mulhall points out, however, that in any case this 
85 millions is only 8 per cent, of the aggregate 
wealth of Australia, the ratio of the national debt 
to national wealth being 6 per cent, in Great Britain 
and Ireland and 12 per cent, in France. Quoting 
Coghill, this ingenious writer (Mulhall) says that 
in 1888 the wealth of Australia amounted to 1,136 
millions, as compared with 26 millions in 1838. 
Certainly an extraordinary increase, and one which, 
although it doubtless suffered considerable tempo- 
rary diminution in the early nineties, when Aus- 
tralia experienced a sharp commercial set-back due 
to the reckless way in which the banks advanced 
money, is probably maintained to-day. The average 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 195 

increase of £22,200,000 per annum represents a far 
greater increase in individual wealth than the citi- 
zens of the United States can boast; for although 
that country claims that each inhabitant accumu- 
lates yearly twice as many sequins as every inhabit- 
ant of the Mother Country, the Australian, man for 
man, puts aside twice or nearly twice as many 
pounds annually as the American. 

Obviously the two main sources of Australian 
prosperity have hitherto been gold and wool. Tak- 
ing into account the recent discoveries in Western 
Australia, it is more than probable that the total 
output of gold since the first tentative discovery 
in 1823 exceeds in value £400,000,000. The yearly 
wool clip is valued at £25,000,000, representing a 
value for the half century alone of £800,000,000. 
These products are a direct gain to Australia, since 
the bulk of them is exported. They are a direct gain 
to the Empire also, since the bulk of their money 
value is spent on imported British products. In 
1891 the total value of the agricultural crop was 
£22,000,000. The fruit crop was worth three mil- 
lions; honey, poultry and eggs, another three mil- 
lions; while the dairies, chiefly of 'New South 
Wales, Victoria and New Zealand, produced at the 
rate of seven millions yearly. I was about to say in 
my haste that the produce represented in this 22 
millions sterling was mainly consumed in Australia 
itself, but the statement would be inaccurate. Aus- 
tralia, as I^ew Zealand, is not only sending frozen 



196 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

and tinned meat in large quantities to this country, 
but fruit also. Moreover, the Cape receives large 
and increasing consignments of meat, butter and 
eggs from Australia. Then there is wine-growing, 
an industry which in several of the colonies is mak- 
ing rapid progress. 

When it is remembered that at the accession of 
Queen Victoria, Australia was popularly regarded 
as a continent vast, unwieldy, and unproductive; of 
little use to the Mother Country, save as a dumping- 
ground for her criminals and for ^' ne'er-do-wells " 
generally, the remarkable progress of the country 
is among the phenomena of the century. Between 
1840 and 1850 the rate of material progress in the 
premier colony, 'New South Wales, was slow. The 
marriage rate rose slowly, and the increase of popu- 
lation was mainly due to fresh arrivals from Eng- 
land. Of course, as in every other part of the world 
where gold has been discovered on a large and pay- 
able scale, the fortunes of Australia were established 
by the successful search after that mineral. It is sig- 
nificant that it was the Californian discoveries which 
led to the systematic quest of gold resulting in the 
finds at Bathurst and Ballarat. These discoveries 
synchronised with the opening of the second half of 
the century. As if by magic, the 'prospects of Aus- 
tralia were entirely revolutionised. Stagnation and 
listlessness gave way to activity and progress. The 
motive of the early seekers after gold, or, to be ac- 
curate, their backers, was to arrest emigration from 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 197 

Australia, and to stimulate immigration into it. 
And the success of the search met with its antici- 
pated reward. The population increased by leaps 
and bounds. In five years it was more than doubled ; 
the exports were more than five times as large, and 
the imports more than six times; while, as showing 
how narrow that school of political economists is 
which deplores these meteoric discoveries of gold, 
in that, as they say, men are drawn from the nobler 
vocation of tilling the soil, to a feverish and un- 
healthful, morally and physically, pursuit, it must 
be recorded that in the first five years of discovery 
the amount of land under cultivation rose from 
450,000 acres to 650,000. The Hon. R. Stout, in 
his Progress of New Zealand, tells us that agricul- 
ture was stimulated vastly in the southernmost 
island of the Australasian group, a ready sale being 
found for its products in Australia. Moreover, as 
Mr. Gonner remarks, when the mines became less 
and less productive, the population which had worked 
them did not quit the country, but spread itself over 
the land. 

N^ot only then is an agricultural population at- 
tracted by the proximity of mines, in that the miners 
must be fed, and are ready and able to reward lib- 
erally those who administer to their needs, but gold 
advertises the capacity of a country to maintain a 
people by the products of the soil, and men, able 
and willing to bring those capabilities to fruition, 
are already on the spot and in a position to 



198 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

draw others to them. Thus, in 1856, the amount 
of land under cultivation was, as we have seen, 
650,000 acres. The number of sheep was 18,000,- 
000. In 1873 there were 3,300,000 acres of culti- 
vated land and the sheep numbered 74,000,000. In 
1897-98 the sheep in ^ew South Wales, Victoria, 
Queensland and Western Australia alone appear to 
have aggregated 82,000,000, while the area under 
cultivation had also increased. 

'No better way of bringing home to the imagina- 
tion the substantial progress Australasia has made 
can be given, than Mr. Gonner gives in the volume 
to which I have already referred. Before 1837, 
he says, ^' the average man would have cultivated 
one-quarter of an acre of land, and owned twenty 
sheep, while he would have exported goods to the 
value of £9 and employed less than two tons of ship- 
ping. IsTow he would cultivate nearly twice the 
acreage, and own rather less sheep, but his exports 
would be nearly double, and the amount of shipping 
put in motion by him would be actually doubled. 
Then his share of the revenue was £3, and now it is 
£6 lis.'' The writer is comparing a population of 
upwards of 3 millions now with 15,000 or so in 
1863. Since Mr. Gonner wrote in 1886 or there- 
abouts, the population has increased rapidly; and 
to-day the above figures would need to be expanded ; 
though, having regard to the temporary check Aus- 
tralia experienced in the early nineties, not very 
materially. 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 19<) 

There are of course more ways of demonstrating 
the rapid growth of Australia than those already 
brought forward. I^ew South Wales has now be- 
tween twenty and thirty thousand factories, and the 
deposits at the Australian banks probably exceed 
£100,000,000. The number of letters per head an- 
nually sent through the post is about equal to the 
number circulated through the post of the United 
Kingdom. 

The progress of l!^ew Zealand, notwithstanding 
the recurrent Maori wars, which were the com- 
monplaces of the earlier years of its settlement by 
British colonists, has been no less remarkable than 
that of the mainland. The pens of J. Anthony Froude 
and Anthony Trollope, and those of hundreds of 
other writers, have convinced most stay-at-home Eng- 
lishmen of its manifold charms — climatic, scenic, 
and social. It has, too, the distinction of being the 
most go-ahead of all our colonies. In the direction of 
social and political experiment, it has adopted and 
put into actual practice many of the most advanced 
reforms conceived by the politico-social philosophers 
of the Motherland. 

There are other colonies and groups of colonies 
in which the advance has been conspicuous, though 
not so conspicuous as that of Australasia, or indeed 
that of Canada. So far as Africa is concerned, the 
Southern colonies are of course of infinitely greater 
present importance than the Western or Eastern 
settlements ; while their future promise is out of all 



200 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

comparison greater than that of the most promising 
British colony in any other part of the African con- 
tinent. Moreover, South Africa is the keystone of 
the Empire, and from that point of view alone is 
all-important. For this reason and for reasons 
stated already in earlier chapters, and ahove all be- 
cause at the moment of writing, events are in progress 
which make it impossible to deal with South Africa 
satisjfactorily, I shall treat the progress of South 
Africa as it affects that of the British Empire in a 
separate chapter, toward the end of this volume. 

It will be proper to say that although neither 
British East Africa (Uganda) nor Nigeria (the 
West Coast generally) is likely to become of im- 
portance as a home for Englishmen, both have, 
especially l^igeria, great present value, and the 
promise of greater future value, as trading centres. 
The country washed by the ITiger is densely popu- 
lated ; and the natives, as tradesmen, are for savages 
on a somewhat high plane, for they retain in many 
instances some of the characteristics of their an- 
cestors, or predecessors in possession of the territory : 
the negro kingdoms of the Middle Ages. Moreover, 
the country is rich in palm oil, hides, rubber, 
gum and probably in minerals. Ashanti, which, 
like the l^iger Territory, has cost us several minor 
wars in recent years, is certainly rich in minerals; 
and if the price quoted in the market for the shares 
of a company concerned in exploiting its gold fields 
may be taken as a criterion of its wealth in gold, 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 201 

Ashanti must be reckoned among the future gold- 
producing countries of the world. The Gold Coast 
Colony, which now includes Ashanti, was founded 
in 1868. It has a revenue of £230,000, a Publhi 
Expenditure of £265,000. Its imports are £931,537 
and its exports £877,000. The revenue of Lagos is 
£179,000, its Public Expenditure £168,000, its im- 
ports £901,000 and its exports £975,000. The 
revenue and expenditure of the Gambia amount 
roughly to £25,000 in each instance, and its imports 
and exports to £110,000 and £117,000 respectively. 
Sierra Leone receives £105,000 and spends £116,- 
000. Its imports and exports are about equal. They 
fall about a hundred thousand pounds under the 
million. The imports and exports of the l^iger 
Coast Protectorate, and the Royal Niger Company 
(the latter now absorbed into the former by the Act of 
1899) fall little short of three millions. This colony 
is, I think, destined to be of great commercial value. 
Unlike the other West African colonies, it has a 
vast territory and population; its hinterlandj 
though somewhat circumscribed by the agents of 
Erance, stretches far into the interior, and includes 
uplands of great value which may even be utilised 
for colonisation. As has been said already, we owe 
this colony in the main to the energy and persistence 
of one man, Sir George Taubman-Goldie, a man the 
British Empire will ever have cause to remember 
with gratitude, for had he not stood in the breach, 
the fairest portions of West Africa would have 



202 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

slipped from our grasp. The indifference and pro- 
crastination of our rulers have been the means of 
our losing much that ought to have been ours; but 
a substantial territory remains, thanks to the efforts 
of this patriotic Englishman, who must rank as one 
of the active empire-makers of the century. 

As to East Africa, that country remains to prove 
itself. For the moment its value is strategic rather 
than commercial, in that its proximity to the Soudan 
enables Great Britain to keep out certain possible 
intruders by way of the eastern coast. So far, too, 
as the other colonies and dependencies of the Empire 
are concerned, it may be said in every case, I think 
(Egypt and India and the Asiatic possessions ex- 
cepted), that their importance is subsidiary to that 
of some larger possessions, and from the point of 
view of direct contributors to wealth, they do not 
make, and are not likely to make, any great show. 
Thus in the Mediterranean, Gibraltar, Malta and 
Cyprus are all of strategic rather than commercial 
importance. Mauritius and its dependencies have 
of course, considerable commercial value in addition 
to their vast importance as defensive factors. The 
exports and imports of Mauritius fall little short, 
taken together, of four millions ; and its revenue and 
expenditure little short of one million sterling. Ber- 
muda, Bahama, Ascension, St. Helena and the 
Falkland Islands are again mainly valuable by rea- 
son of their geographical position. 

That Egypt is intimately associated with impe- 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 203 

rial progress is as self-evident as it is undeniable, 
though whether or not it is strictly correct to include 
it in the British Empire I do not know, and I must 
frankly add I do not care, since our position there is 
practically regulated by the Anglo-French Conven- 
tion of 1899. France is the only power which 
at any time was likely to challenge our right to 
remain in the country, unless that challenge were a 
part of a general movement against us. In regard 
to Egypt, it is obvious that our presence there is 
largely due to strategic reasons. Certainly the 
country contributes nothing directly to the wealth of 
the Empire, though our presence there benefits many 
Englishmen whose capital is invested in Egyptian 
Eunds, as in a similar connection it benefits many 
Frenchmen and the citizens of other nations. 

The story of our connection with Egypt is full 
of interest; and I must say it tempts my pen. But 
exigencies of space necessitate vigorous self-repres- 
sion. For all practical purposes it will suffice to 
say that Great Britain's first appearance on the scene 
as arbiter of the destinies of Egypt, was in 1875, 
when Lord Beaconsfield was astute enough to buy 
the Khedive's Suez Canal shares for four millions 
sterling. The money was merely a sop in the pan; 
for the Khedive was madly extravagant, and his 
finances going from bad to worse, England and 
France interfered on behalf of British and -French 
bondholders. In the end the practical control of the 
country was in the hands of the Finance Ministers 



204 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

appointed by the two countries. This dual control 
(1879-83) was terminated by the ineptitude of 
France, who refused to take her share in repressing 
the insurrection of Arabi Pasha. It may be said 
then, that since 1880 the authority of the Sultan of 
Turkey, already a shadow, has been reduced to a 
figment, and England, preserving the nominal au- 
thority of the Khedive, has really ruled the country j 
though it has needed twenty years to establish the 
authority of Egypt over the provinces of the Soudan 
which revolted under the Mahdi in the first instance, 
and his successor, the Khalifa, in the second. The 
failure of the Egyptian troops to suppress the Mah- 
di's insurrection, led to the memorable expedition of 
General Gordon, and to the murder of that heroic 
Englishman at Khartoum. Eor a time the Soudan 
was abandoned, but in 1895 Great Britain began to 
put into execution her long-matured plan for its re- 
conquest. Lord Cromier, the Consul-General at Cairo, 
and the Sirdar, Lord Kitchener, brought that work 
to completion, step by step. Dongola was occupied 
in 1896, Omdurman in 1898, the Khalifa was tracked 
down in the last months of 1899, and Osman Digna, 
whom many have regarded as the fons et origo of all 
the mischief, was captured in the first weeks of 1900. 
Under the British rulers, Egypt has been made 
a self-respecting, self-supporting country, with a rev- 
enue w-ell in excess of its expenditure, a system of jus- 
tice and education has been established, the oppress- 
ive pashas suppressed, the land irrigated, and in brief. 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 205 

from a land of misfortune and unliappiness, Egypt 
has been transformed into one of the best governed 
and most prosperous states of the world. So abso- 
lute has been, the success of British administration, 
that the young Khedive, who, for several years after 
his succession to the throne gave the English rulers 
endless trouble, has at last thrown off his evil French 
and native advisers, and has openly confessed that 
Great Britain has proved herself to be the friend 
and benefactor of his dynasty, his people and his 
country. 

I have dealt thus briefly with the dealings of the 
British Empire with Egypt in this place because, 
primarily and technically, our presence in the coun- 
try was due to a financial reason, and in the second 
degree due to our position in India, with which 
Egypt, being a half-way house, is intimately con- 
nected ; and so being, its control must ever be a mat- 
ter of importance to Britons. Moreover, I propose 
to conclude this chapter with some further refer- 
ence to India, a reference which must be final. As 
in the case of Egypt, in that of India the magnitude 
of my theme obliges me to exercise compression 
whenever it is possible to do so; and assuredly the 
fact that no less an authority than Sir Richard 
Temple is to deal with the progress of India, releases 
me from the obligation to do more than merely indi- 
cate her place in the great scheme of the British Em- 
pire. 

Whether India, taken as a whole, and taking the 



206 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

enormous increase of her population into considera- 
tion, lias really grown in wealth, it is hard to say. 
Truth has many facets, and in studying the complex 
problems connected with the growth of British power 
in India, it is possible to see in this increase of her 
people an increase of imperial wealth, while it is 
impossible to ignore the view that, in multiplying 
so quickly, the people of India are running a great 
risk of outstripping the resources of the peninsula. 
However this may be, it would be foolish for any one 
to attempt to deny that under British rule during 
the century, the condition of the people has steadily 
improved. They are no longer allowed to die of 
famine ; in any case stupendous exertions are made 
to save them from this fate. They are not subject 
to continual unrest and warfare ; their lives and prop- 
erty are secure, while they have been freed of various 
brutal institutions which, under the cloak of relig- 
ion — and no doubt they were generally believed in 
by the people — condemned numbers of blameless 
women and innocent infants to death. It is I think, 
impossible for the most bitter opponent of English 
rule in India to question the material, social, and, 
so far as an appreciative minority goes, moral ad- 
vance of the Indian peoples since they have come 
under the dominion of Great Britain. The people 
have few requirements, and are accustomed to the 
simplest living. But there is an irreducible mini- 
mum of subsistence to fall below which means star- 
vation. It has been for many a long year the business 



GEOWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 207 

of British administration to keep the food supply 
from falling below that minimum. Assuredly it 
cannot be said that this ideal has possessed Great 
Britain throughout the whole of the century. The 
annals of British rule in India would give unhap- 
pily, the lie to such a contention. But in any case, 
during the Victorian era, whether India was under 
the rule of the East India Company, or under the 
more direct Imperial control which has obtained 
since the Mutiny, it is obvious the effort has been 
made to save the people from impending famine, 
and in most cases successfully. 

Again, that the incidence of taxation presses far 
less heavily on the individual under the present 
regime than in any other period of recorded history, 
is safely to be assured. Thus the annual revenue 
of the Emperor Jehangir (1609-11) was £50,000,- 
000, and of a later Mogul Emperor, the famous 
Aurungzebe, something like £80,000,000. I^ow it 
is obvious that this revenue must have been derived 
from taxation three times heavier than that which 
the British Government imposes; since although 
the area of Aurungzebe's empire approximated fairly 
nearly with that of British India to-day, the popula- 
tion must have been infinitely smaller, since it was 
constantly decimated by disease, famine, war, and 
under the recognised systems of judicial and sacer- 
dotal murder which obtained. 

Since the accession of the Queen we have added 
greatly to the area of British dominion in India, 



208 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

but when we consider that the revenue was £22,000,- 
000 in 1837, £37,000,000 just before the Mutiny, 
£71,000,000 in 1885, and £100,000,000 or there- 
abouts to-day, and these facts are taken in conjunc- 
tion with those others, viz., that there has been no 
increase of taxation, on the contrary, taxation has 
been mitigated, and that there was no considerable 
increase of territory between 1885, when the rev- 
enue was £71,000,000, and 1898, when it was £98,- 
000,000 (this is reckoning the rupee at its face value 
of two shillings), it is obvious that there must have 
been a wonderful growth in the population. There 
doubtless has been a far more effective system of 
tax collection in recent years. 'No one properly 
amenable to the tax has been able to escape. What 
is even more to the point, a proof is afforded by this 
constant inflation of the revenue, that the money 
collected now goes into the public exchequer, instead 
of sticking to the palms of the collectors as in earlier 
years. 

It is to be noted that so far as the land tax goes, 
Akbar's revenue from this source in 1605 is given 
at 17^ millions. A century later Aurungzebe's land 
revenue amounted to 38 millions. But in 1837 the 
East India Company only received 12 millions from 
this source. In 1884-5 it was rather less than 22 
millions, and to-day isi represented by something 
like 27 millions. Again it must be remembered 
that these figures are based on the nominal value 
of the rupee, two shillings, whereas that coin, fluctu- 



GROWTH OF WEALTH : REVENUE AND DEBT. 209 

ating with, the price of silver, varies in value from 
Is. 2d. to Is. 4d. 

It may be seen from these figures that India has 
made real material progress so far as the bulk of 
the people goes; but whether British occupancy has 
had any marked moral or intellectual effect upon any 
but an almost undistinguishable minority of the 
people, may well be questioned. Professor Max Miil- 
ler seems to incline to the belief that it has ; and his 
opinion commands respect. In any case it cannot 
be denied that British influence has endowed India 
with the curse of a small body of noisy stump orators, 
who are vainly endeavouring to popularise Western 
institutions in an uncongenial Eastern environment ; 
and, in plain English, are labouring, consciously 
or unconsciously, to incite the people to rebellion. 
It has endowed it, too, with a vernacular press which 
has a like tendency. In other respects, from all I 
can learn, it seems to me that the mental outlook of 
India to-day is very much what it was in the days be- 
fore Clive and Hastings laid the foundations of Brit- 
ish power in that vast country. 

The public debt of India was estimated at £232,- 
339,028 in 1897; but it is necessary to remember 
that a very large proportion of this total is scarcely 
to be regarded as a debt in the sense that our !N"a- 
tional Debt is a debt. It is not dead money; so far 
as nearly £100,000,000 goes it is reproductive, the 
capital, as in the case of Australia, having been spent 
on constructing public works, which, to use Sir Henry 
14 



210 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Maine's words, now contribute a larger total of re- 
ceipts to the treasury than the whole of the interest 
payable to the original lenders. And this authority 
further says the hopeful part of the business lies in 
the fact that these public works — railways, canals 
and irrigation works — show a tendency to become 
more and more productive ; thereby reducing the lia- 
bility on the expenditure incurred in waging war 
and kindred expenses. 

To complete this rapid survey of the financial po- 
sition of the Empire, it is necessary to add that, from 
the point of view of trade, the Straits Settlements 
and Hong Kong are of great importance. Hong 
Kong has a revenue of nearly half a million, and its 
expenditure somewhat exceeds that sum. The sta- 
tistics of its trade, which is most considerable, are 
not available. The imports of the Straits Settle- 
ments exceed 20 millions and its exports are a trifle 
over 23 millions. 



HOME GROWTH. 211 



CHAPTER IX. 



HOME GROWTH. 



The statistics of those robust optimists, Sir Robert 
Giffen and Mr. Michael Mulhall, are, so far as my 
knowledge extends, unimpeachable; nor do I know 
that they have ever been seriously or successfully 
challenged, save so far as comparatively unimpor- 
tant details go. These authorities make ovit a glori- 
ous case for the growth of national wealth ; and un- 
questionably the progress of the Mother Country 
has, on the whole, been marvellous, and especially 
marvellous in the years following Her Majesty's 
accession; for prior to that date, or more properly, 
prior to 1830 or thereabouts, the nation had scarcely 
got over the exhaustion and listlessness resulting 
from the long duel with France. To put it in an- 
other way, the nation could not readily divert its 
thoughts and energies from the channel in which 
they had so long run, and, strange as it may seem, 
for some time the cessation of the war put, positively, 
a check on progress which, nevertheless, as I have 
shown, had been during the war itself considerable. 

While however, such figures as Mr. Mulhall's are 
undoubtedly trustworthy in themselves, they con- 
vey, standing alone, misleading impressions, which 



212 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

need to be corrected by a close study of figures and 
data of a less optimistic character; figures and data 
to be found, for instance, in Mr. Charles Booth's 
Pauperism: A Picture,, and The Condition of the 
Aged Poor, and in writings bearing upon the suffer- 
ings of the " naked and destitute," such as George E. 
Sims' Hoio the Poor Live, and General Booth's In 
Darlcest England. Such reading will cure one of 
any tendency to undue optimism. 

It is of course, impossible to deny that there has 
been a steady decrease in pauperism since the middle 
of the century; though the returns for the United 
Kingdom still show about a million paupers, or about 
1 in 40 for the entire population. Having regard to 
the enormous advances made in the wealth of the 
middle and working classes, this state of affairs can- 
not be regarded as even approximately satisfactory. 
For my part, I confess I am in no degree impressed 
by these heaped-up statistics of national prosperity; 
for, side by side with this prosperity and possible 
happiness, we have among us an enormous minority 
— the actual paupers are only a small portion of the 
whole — of poverty-stricken persons, many starving 
and all — save those few who, armed by temperament 
or some other internal aid, rise superior to circum- 
stance — living in a condition of abject misery and 
hopeless despair. 

We will not again traverse the ground over which 
we travelled in dealing with actual and potential co- 
lonisation, but I must once again protest against the 



HOME GROWTH. 213 

danger of being misled by those flourishing visions of 
national progress which statisticians of the roseate 
order are so quick to force upon our acceptance. It 
was Professor Thorold Rogers who said that there 
was a large population collected in our great cities, 
which equal in number the whole of the people who 
lived in England and Wales six centuries ago, " whose 
condition was more destitute and whose homes were 
more squalid, whose means were more uncertain, 
and whose fortune w^as more hopeless than the poor- 
est serf in the Middle Ages." This is not the lan- 
guage of hysteria or sentimentality. Personal ex- 
perience and knowledge lead me to accept it as 
perfectly true. Professor Rogers spoke of homes. 
That very word home; sweet-smelling, wholesome, 
pure ; the word which brings, other things being equal, 
a flush of pride and pleasure to the cheeks of the 
most unemotional of the vast majority of well-to-do 
folk, is a misnomer as applied to those ill-smelling 
foul dens, the atmosphere laden with minute organ- 
isms destructive to health and ultimately to life it- 
self ; laden, too, with the hideous and lurid vernacular 
of their in-dwellers. 

Professor Rogers was right. The serf in the Mid- 
dle Ages knew that his life was at the mercy of his 
lord, knew that his wife and his daughter might have 
to relinquish to that lord that which is more than 
life ; and to live under the ban of such risks was with- 
out doubt very bitter. But the vast majority escaped 
thes^ dangers, and lived through their uneventful 



214 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

lives in comparative comfort and content. Between 
them and the " good-for-nothings " who swarm in 
our great cities there is a difference in kind, not 
in degree, for the lives of our urban outcasts are but 
poor things to take, and the honour of their women a 
hard thing to seek. Mr. Edwin H. Kerwin, who has 
lived and worked among the outcasts of East London, 
that " huge dust-bin," to use his o^vn words, " into 
which the human rubbish of the whole land empties 
itself," advocates farm colonies as a cure for the evil. 
I cordially support him. I have advocated compul- 
sory and labour colonies, not necessarily across the 
seas, as a cure for the mischief siijce I first learned 
to use my pen. Such colonies have succeeded in Ger- 
many. In Holland, where there are no poorhouses, 
and few able-bodied paupers, labour colonies are a 
part of the national system of government. 

I must not however, go beyond my text. I remind 
myself that I am concerned with things as they are ; 
and outside of the admirable organisations of the 
Salvation Army and many kindred efforts which are 
in no sense official, no serious attempt has been made 
by our rulers to cope with this terrible evil; at all 
events since the earlier part of the century, when the 
haphazard system of dumping down our paupers in 
Canada obtained; a system which, however conven- 
ient it might have been from a local point of view, 
had nothing to commend it from an imperial, that is 
to say, national point of view; and from a colonial 
point of view was altogether indefensible at any time, 



HOME GROWTH. 215 

and in recent years quite impossible. Mr. Kerwin 
justly says the matter is one which must be grappled 
with, since slumdom is a curse to London and con- 
tributory to other curses. It is the curse of all our 
great cities, and unhappily it is a curse incident not 
only to the cities of the Motherland, but is becoming, 
as time goes on, the curse of the cities of the Empire 
generally. 

Armchair sociologists and politicians are accus- 
tomed to dismiss the growth in numbers of the resid- 
uum class, in that the growth has not been greater 
relatively than that of any other class, that it is 
simply a case of multiplication all round: an 
extraordinary argument surely, since the happiness 
which prosperity brings is not heaven, while the 
misery of the outcasts and vagabonds is hell. Again, 
can the happiness of a thousand beings be put in 
the scale against the misery of a unit ? Happiness is 
after all a negative condition; misery is a positive 
one. 

If however, we elect to forget this flotsam and 
jetsam of society, it would still be something of an 
over-statement to declare that the condition of all 
other classes of society has uniformly improved 
throughout the century. Doubtless if we take the 
upper middle, the middle and the working classes in 
the mass, there has been a steady improvement, but 
within those classes many sections have suffered — 
the rural landowners, so far as the upper classes go, 
and the farmers, so far as the middle classes go. 



216 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

That these classes which had been accustomed to live 
on the interest of invested capital, have been greatly 
impoverished by reason of the cheapness of money, 
or, in other words, the heavy fall in the rate of inter- 
est on capital, cannot, of course, be considered as an 
unmitigated evil, since everything which tends to 
drive an individual into being a producer, which 
obliges him to live by the sweat of his brow, instead 
of by the sweat of his neighbour's brow, must, I 
suppose, on the whole be held to be conducive to the 
good of the community. This compulsion however to 
labour has in itself caused suffering by introducing a 
number of fresh competitors into professional life, 
thereby lessening the wage, and sometimes appro- 
priating the very means of subsistence of the original 
strugglers. But this consideration is involved and 
to pursue it takes me too far afield. Likewise to 
specially indicate the various trades that have been 
ruined by economic causes, the removal of protection, 
the application of machinery, such as the silk weavers 
of Spitalfields, to mention a picturesque industry — 
for it was in the hands of the descendants of its 
founders, the Huguenot refugees of 1688 — ^would 
trespass too much on my space. 

Looking at the matter broadly, the evidence of 
growth in the wealth of the nation, here in these 
islands, is of course overwhelming. Thus the 
national debt has been reduced from £900,000,000 in 
1815 to about £638,000,000 in 1898, and the inter- 
est payable has decreased from £30,000,000 td 



HOME GROWTH. 217 

i£25,000,000. Considering the vast increase in tlie 
population, the burden of this debt has been greatly 
lightened since 1815. 

The population of Great Britain and Ireland in 
1801 was 16i millions, in 1811, about 18|- mil- 
lions, and in 1821 about 2 3 J. When the Queen came 
to the throne it was set down at 25,650,000. In 1851 
it was upwards of 27^ millions, in 1861, 29J mil- 
lions, and in 1871 nearly 32 millions. In 1889, when 
the Queen had completed fifty years of her reign, it 
was about 37 millions. At the last census, 1891, it 
was a little more than 38 millions, and although Sir 
Robert Giffen's calculation that it would be nearly 
45 millions at the end of the century is not likely to 
be verified, the figures for 1896 being 39^ millions, 
the total in 1901 may possibly reach 42| millions. 
The decrease in the size of families, owing to later 
marriages, not to mention other social causes which 
are increasingly operative, and which, if these tend- 
encies continue, will have a very serious effect upon 
the future of the British race, for numbers must tell, 
may be held answerable for Sir Robert's miscalcula- 
tion. 

It cannot be denied that high as the ratio of in- 
crease in the British race at home still is, it is not so 
high as it was. I have mislaid the figures I had in 
readiness, but I remember that Germany now takes 
the lead, and that Great Britain does not come second 
on the list, in these comparative statistics of the na- 
tions' fecundity. Of course, in such a matter, so 



218 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

long as a steady increase is maintained, quality 
counts for much, and what we have to consider is 
whether the better elements of the British nation 
are increasing. Despite all that has been said as 
to the sterilisation of the unfit by natural processes, 
it is only too clear that the nation is still cumbered by 
an enormous dead weight, in the shape of criminals, 
paupers, tramps and vagabonds. This class, to which 
I have referred in the earlier part of this chapter, is 
probably recruited, in a very large measure, from 
without, by the subsidence, so to speak, of the " dregs 
and feculence " of all other classes, rather than from 
within by inherent increase. But it will be readily 
conceded, and those facts connected with the agri- 
cultural population must be remembered, that if 
classes which should remain stationary increase, and 
those that should increase, decrease, there can be no 
national gain. Although it is obvious that the re- 
striction in the increase of the British race in the 
metropolis of the Empire, that is to say, the British 
Isles, has affected mainly the upper and upper-middle 
classes, these are the classes, excluding that portion 
of them which has become effete through over-indul- 
gence, best fitted to carry on the race. It must not 
be forgotten, in considering this delicate problem, 
that with the constant raising of the standard of 
living — and despite the cheapening of most of the 
necessities and luxuries of life, the increase in the 
cost of living due to the multiplication of needs 
and sources of expenditure continues — ^the upper 



HOME GROWTH. 219 

classes are the very classes which cannot increase 
largely with any comfort to themselves, and there- 
fore with any benefit to the nation. Simpler tastes 
hereafter may simplify the problem; but for the 
moment we must take comfort from the fact that 
England has always been an exceedingly democratic 
country, and that although the ups and downs of 
fortune have affected families through the course 
of generations, rather than in one generation as in the 
case of the United States, yet there has been this 
constant interchange of social status going on among 
the people. So it comes about that much of the best 
blood of England, the best blood, let us say, during the 
Middle Ages, is now to be found in the veins of the 
humbler middle-class families, and even in those of 
field labourers and mechanics, while much of the 
aristocracy of the day has apparently sprung from 
nowhere; though close examination of facts often 
shows that what is dismissed as the vapourings of 
venal heralds, is true enough in the main, and that 
the self-made family is after all only reverting to the 
position of its ancestors. Having touched bottom, 
the rebound has come, and the qualities which en- 
abled these ancestors to rise, re-appear in descendants 
more or less remote. 

Erom this we may hope that so long as the 
backbone of the country, the self-respecting classes, 
keep up fairly well to the old ratio of increase, 
there is not much fear for the future of the 
race, always supposing that some check can be de- 



PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

vised to keep the rural population from flocking 
into the towns. So far the middle classes — sl some- 
what misleading term, but as used here, intended to 
denote the shopkeeping class, the higher artisan, and 
the persons employed in clerical work and so forth — 
seem to be keeping up the normal rate of increase, 
but as I have laboured to prove, that will not suffice if 
" the proud peasantry, the nation's pride," are going 
to the wall. Apart from that serious aspect of the 
population question, the statistics of increase would 
not be disquieting ; while as they stand, they may, I 
suppose, fairly be quoted, as they are constantly 
quoted, as favourable indices of the continued pros- 
perity of the country, and of its growth in wealth. 

The position of Ireland in this matter of wealth 
and population is peculiar. The inhabitants of Ire- 
land to-day are actually 600,000 less than they were 
in 1801, over two millions less than in 1821, and 
over three millions less than in 1831. In 1821 Ire- 
land had 6,802,000 inhabitants; in 1831, 7,767,401; 
in 1841, 8,175,124. Between 1841 and 1851, that 
is to say in 1847, the great Potato Famine devas- 
tated the island, and in 1851 the population had de- 
creased by over one and a half millions, for in that 
year it stood at 6,552,000. A further decrease has 
continued to show itself at the taking of every census 
since then, the figure for the decadal periods being 
5,799,000 for 1861; 6,412,377 for 1871; 5,175,800 
for 1881, and 4,704,750 for 1891. 

Obviously it has been an advantage to Ireland to 



HOME GROWTH. 221 

lose a starving people, which the available resources 
of the country at the time of these outgoings did not 
permit her to support. That these resources might 
have been greater had it not been for certain unjust 
legislation, which in the early part of this century 
and in many previous centuries crippled and killed 
Irish industries, I am not called upon to deny. Mr. 
Mulhall in contrasting the increase of the popula- 
tion in Scotland with the decrease in Ireland says: 
" In 1841 Scotland had less than one-third of the 
population of Ireland, whereas at present the two 
countries are almost equal. The increase in Scot- 
land has been attended with the happiest results, 
industry and wealth rising by leaps and bounds. 
At the same time the decline of Ireland has been 
no less marked, and as the number of inhabitants de- 
creases year by year, so does every useful occupation 
except the raising of cattle." The exception is a big 
one. Moreover the comparison between Scotland 
and Ireland is not a fair one, having regard to the 
marked divergence in the character of the respective 
peoples of the two countries. It seems to fair and 
dispassionate students that the climate, the genus loci, 
must have something to say, far more to say than 
imaginary political disabilities, to the non-success of 
Irishmen in Ireland, seeing that in course of time 
the most virile Scotch and English families resident 
for a generation or two in that country, assimilate 
to the Celt, at all events, in that fatal inability of the 
Celt to make the best of the country. This theory 



222 PROGRESS OF BRITISH tiMPIRE. 

of climate being responsible, fanciful as it may ap- 
pear, is really borne out by the fact which must be 
freely conceded, that Irishmen who have settled in 
America or the colonies, during the century, have 
commonly given a very good account of themselves. 
Then again it must be remembered that Ireland 
is not possessed of the great natural resources of 
England and Scotland, or for that matter of Amer- 
ica and the colonies. I cannot pretend to say how 
far this colonial emigration has benefited Ireland, 
or to determine what effect it has had upon the 
United Kingdom and the Empire generally. An 
examination into this subject would be profitable 
and interesting, though it bristles with difficulties and 
apparent contradictions ; but this examination would 
carry me too far afield. It is obvious, in any case, 
that in a political sense the presence of a large body 
of disaffected Irishmen in America and in the colo- 
nies — though very often the Irishman has become a 
loyal subject of the Empire in the latter — ^has been 
and is fraught with very grave inconveniences, losses 
and dangers. The advocates of Home Rule for Ire- 
land, a measure, the discussion of which merely, 
entailed a terrible loss of time and energy on the King- 
dom and the Empire, maintain that the menace to the 
Empire of disaffected Ireland, at home, abroad and 
in the colonies, should speak trumpet-mouthed in 
favour of the measure. To which Englishmen 
candidly answer that they cannot risk the experi- 
ment, though obviously when the time is ripe for the 



HOME GROWTH. 223 

adoption of a general scheme of federal union be- 
tween England and the colonies, the problem of how 
to satisfy the aspirations of Irishmen, not for na- 
tional but for local autonomy, will be much easier of 
solution. 

I have wandered from my immediate text. It is 
impossible to be sure what the giant theme I have 
undertaken to treat, does and does not include. Prop- 
erly it includes almost every subject under the sun; 
but certainly it should include some reference to the 
determined effort of the Irish to force Great Britain, 
during the last two decades of the century, to grant 
prematurely a measure which as the Empire solidi- 
fies and possesses some semblance of fiscal homo- 
geneity and a working system of co-ordinate defence, 
will more likely than not find itself accepted as a 
matter of course, as, in fact, a part of that general 
extension of local control within the confines of the 
British Isles themselves, that decentralisation of gov- 
ernment, that is to say, which must go hand in hand 
with federal centralisation as its natural sequence or 
corollary. This premature effort to force Home 
Rule on the British Parliament — clearly the times 
were not, and are not, ripe for it — has, as I have 
said, cost the United Kingdom and indeed the Em- 
pire dear. It is impossible to say how dear. Wasted 
energy, wasted time; the coach of state has stuck 
again and again in the ruts made by this abortive 
and monstrous scheme. 

There I must leave the subject. It is not possible 



224: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

to give all the subjects germain to the growth of the 
Empire, proper and individual treatment. I must 
refer to many in passing where and when I can. 
Whether or not the political discontent of Ireland 
has contributed largely to its loss of population, it 
is impossible to say; but it is certain that Ireland 
has not grown richer with the decrease of its people, 
as it is certain that England and Scotland have grown 
richer with the increase of theirs. The fact that the 
population of Scotland has not increased so rapidly 
as that of England, is in a measure due to the large 
number of Scotchmen who have come South and 
settled in England. The increase in both Kingdoms, 
England and Scotland, has been, as we have already 
seen, mainly in the industrial population, which has 
meant an increase in the wealth, if hardly — other 
things being equal, sanitary and medical science 
have done much for the health of the people — in the 
health of the community. 

A few figures in addition to those already given 
will suffice to show how wide and extensive this in- 
crease in wealth has been. Sir Kobert Giffen's 
elaborate figures, which need not be quoted here, go 
to show that the average income of the people has 
increased vastly in recent years, and with it accumu- 
lated national wealth. The probate returns between 
1891 and 1896 show that England has an average 
wealth per head of something like £350, Scotland 
£263 and Ireland £142. He (Sir Kobert) estimates 
the average increase of wealth at 140 millions yearly. 



HOME GROWTH. 225 

Ss a proof, among others, of the extraordinary change 
that has taken place in the distribution of wealth in 
England and Scotland, we find that whereas in 1840 
farming capital represented nearly a half of the en- 
tire wealth of the United Kingdom, in 1896 it was 
only 14 per cent, of the total wealth of England and 
21 per cent, of Scotland, and since then this rate has 
tended to diminish yearly. In Ireland, on the other 
hand, agricultural wealth is 60 per cent, of the total 
wealth of the community. 

Those who see in this change in the occupations of 
the people nothing but good, are accustomed to point 
to the fact that the people of these islands are 
housed doubly as well as they were in 1837, and that 
while the people of Great Britain are the best housed 
in Europe, the Irish are nearly the worst. The 
fact remains that a rural people can thrive physi- 
cally, while they are unquestionably infinitely hap- 
pier, in habitations which in crowded cities would be 
noxious and fever-breeding hovels. The secret of the 
whole matter is fresh air and expanse. It is, how- 
ever, a pertinent fact that building has progressed 
four times as quickly as the population in Great 
Britain. ISTotwithstanding this, the question of the 
housing of the poor is still one demanding the most 
earnest attention. I shall have something to say 
upon this problem later. 

To return to the statistics of wealth as they 
specially affect Ireland. In the 62 years between 
1833 and 1895, England quadrupled her wealth and 
15 



226 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Scotland trebled hers, but the wealth of Ireland de- 
clined by 100 millions, that is to say, it was esti- 
mated at £750,000,000 in 1833 as against £650,- 
000,000 in 1895. Still, and this is a highly signifi- 
cant fact, which even Mr. Mulhall, though he never 
loses an opportunity of emphasising the wrongs and 
griefs of Ireland, is compelled to admit, although 
Ireland has lost 40 per cent, of her population since 
1833, the ratio of wealth to each inhabitant has in- 
creased from £95 to £142. From this I think one 
is fairly permitted to argue that the existing popula- 
tion of the country is better proportioned to the re- 
sources of the land and to the energies of the people, 
than the larger population in the early part of the 
century. 

Sir Eobert Giffen bases such of his statistics of 
wealth as are deduced from the income tax returns 
on the actual assessments, which were £270,000,000 
in 1837 and £630,000,000 in 1887. In 1896 this 
amount was £706,000,000, and at the end of the 
century something like 100 millions. But Mr. Mul- 
hall, with quiet cynicism, boldly assumes that the 
assessment returns only represent half the actual 
earnings of people falling under the ban of the in- 
come tax. This authority seems to have satisfied him- 
self ; I do not pretend to say whether he is right or 
wrong, that the average income for England is £40 
a year, for Scotland £31, and for Ireland £17. Mr. 
Mulhall himself says that it is not safe to depend 
upon these figures, since many wealthy landowners 



HOME GROWTH. 227 

and others belonging to Scotland and Ireland, pay 
income tax in London, although only residing there 
during a part of the year. This indefatigable statis- 
tician, in his Industries and Wealth of Nations, 
shows that the total earnings of the three kingdoms 
in 1894 were in agriculture 138 millions, in manu- 
factures 525 millions, in commerce 830 millions, and 
in the professions and various callings 430 millions, 
a total of £1,423,000,000, which when subdivided 
shows an average income of £38 per head in Eng- 
land, £45 in Scotland and £20 in Ireland. 

It would seem that since 1840 the proportion of 
persons above the reach of want has increased ma- 
terially ; for at the end of the century the percentage 
of adults dying leaving property exceeding £100, was 
probably well over 15 per cent, of the whole, whereas 
in 1840 it was only 6^ per cent, and at the beginning 
of the century the ratio was lower still. The removal 
of taxation from the working classes, for that is of 
course the meaning of the abolition of the imposts 
on imported food, has imposed a heavier relative 
burthen on the upper and middle classes. Taken in 
the bulk these classes, always excepting the unhappy 
landowners and farmers, and certain sections of the 
professional classes, have been well able to bear 
this increase incidence of taxation, for we find both 
classes have grown in wealth. Unhappily no scheme 
of taxation or forfeiture has yet been devised where- 
by the great and growing evil associated with the 
nation's wealth, its tendency to revert into the hands 



228 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

of an exceedingly small group of plutocrats, who en- 
joy a kind of unwritten right to exact the first-fruits 
of the industry of the nation, may be checked. All 
such schemes are confronted by threadbare old here- 
sies and shibboleths of a time-worn political econ- 
omy, and cheap nonsense about confiscation and the 
check on personal effort and energy. I cannot do 
battle with these specious arguments now. The sub- 
ject is of course a politico-social one into which it is 
impossible to enter, but no patriot can witness this 
growing evil without grave concern, not to say alarm. 
The wealth of some of the ancient houses of Eng- 
land is associated with huge responsibilities and 
hereditary duties. It plays its part wholesomely 
and naturally in the life and progress of the nation. 
The man who owns it, though he may live in a palace, 
is commonly as simple in his life and personal ex- 
penditure as the ordinary country gentleman, or 
moderately successful man of business. 'Not so. the 
millionaires of yesterday, who, endowed with finan- 
cial genius, to give the quality which they possess 
its euphemistic name, having acquired by those 
peculiar methods at which they are past masters, 
the hard earnings of the masses, are generally no 
less scrupulous in spending the money which is 
legally though not morally theirs, than they were 
in amassing it; with the result that as in its amass- 
ment a serious injury was done to the community, 
even deadlier injuries are inflicted on the people, 
during the processes of its dissipation. 



HOME GROWTH. 229 

Throughout the Victorian Era, especially toward 
the last years of the century, no greater social evil 
has overtaken the community than the advent of 
this race of plutocrats. The huge fortunes made in 
large national undertakings, in shipping, in rail- 
ways, in commerce, have doubtless been hurtful 
enough; since the congestion of wealth and its re- 
version to the few must be hurtful to the many. 
But the greater part of the huge fortunes of modern 
days have not been made in great and healthful 
enterprises, but in the unfair control of markets, 
and all those shameless manipulations by which rings 
and monopolies have stolen the people's earnings, 
or by those no less shameless foistings of useless and 
inferior goods upon the people, and the employment 
of that much abused vehicle advertisement for the 
purpose. 

During the century the revenue of the United 
Kingdom has varied considerably. I have already 
stated that according to trustworthy statistics the 
war with France cost the country the enormous sum 
of £2,000,000,000 sterling. The greater part of 
this money was raised and expended during those 
years, but a considerable portion of it was added on 
to the ITational Debt, which stood at £900,000,000 at 
the conclusion of the war. A certain moiety of this 
huge sum was already in existence when the Trench 
war began; legacies from the wars of the previous 
hundred years. The debt practically began with 
William III., and it stood at £248,000,000 in 1793. 



230 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

It seems incredible to us to-day that so far back as 
1813, when the population of the British islands was 
less than 19 millions, and the accumulated wealth 
and current wealth of the Kingdom was not a tithe 
of what it is to-day, the national expenditure reached 
the extraordinary total of £108,397,645, of which 
£68,748,363 were raised by taxation and £39,640,- 
282 by loans. In 1897-8, the expenditure of the 
Mother Country was just under £107,000,000 and 
in 1898-9 it amounted to £108,336,193. Some idea 
can be gleaned from these figures — the fact that in 
1813 the country spent about one and a half mil- 
lions more than it did in 1898, and rather more 
than in 1899 — of the enormous sacrifices the Twenty 
Years' War entailed on the people. The marvel is 
how the taxes were paid ; but they were paid, and so 
long as Napoleon was unchecked they were paid 
cheerfully enough by the vast majority of the nation. 
It is a splendid record of national spirit and an 
object lesson to Englishmen at this moment. 

At the end of the war the debt amounted to £45 
a head of the population ; to-day it is £15 or less per 
head, while the total amount is going on the road 
to extinction, or rather it was doing so, though it is 
possible some temporary check may be put on that 
process by the events transpiring as I write. I had 
written in my original draft of this volume, that if 
no hostile conditions or untoward circumstances 
abroad, or civil disaster at home should overtake us, 
it might be assumed that by 1950 the debt would have 



HOME GROWTH. 231 

shrunk to very shallow proportions. It now costs 
the country something under £25,000,000 annually, 
considerably less than a quarter of the total expendi- 
ture, whereas in the first years of Her Majesty's 
reign, the interest on the ISTational Debt was consid- 
erably more than half the national revenue. In 
normal times the debt is reduced by about 8 millions 
annually; and this though throughout the Queen's 
reign, or the greater part of it, the imperial taxes 
have been constantly lightened. But as Sir Robert 
Giffen has remarked, while national taxation has 
greatly decreased, local taxes have materially in- 
creased. Roughly they are three times what they 
were when Her Majesty came to the throne. I^ever- 
theless, even so, to quote Sir Robert, " the rate of 
taxes was not increased . . . there is a largely 
increased property to bear the burden . . . and 
if the burden is new, the community gets the bene- 
fit in better education, better drainage and sewage, 
and in gas and water and those improvements which 
the greater concentration of people in large towns ren- 
ders necessary. The taxation is to some extent a de- 
duction from the property in houses which the com- 
munity meanwhile has acquired. Without the im- 
provements the property would not be so valuable as 
it is." 

!N'ow it is a trite commonplace of almost every 
daily journal and almost every platform orator to 
ascribe our national progress to the adoption of 
Free Trade. It is argued that if we had but been 



232 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

able to feed our people cheaply and well, we could 
not have reared the great industrial community 
which is the backbone of our national prosperity. 
From this general proposition it is not necessary to 
dissent. ISTevertheless it is to be questioned whether 
the increase in the output of coal, and its employ- 
ment in the form of steam as a motive force, have 
not as much to say to the matter as the adoption of 
Free Trade. I will not pursue this vexed question. 
Certainly it is not very amusing to our landed pro- 
prietors to be told that England's prosperity rests on 
the cheap loaf, since if that be so, they can but rue- 
fully reflect that the bulk of the manufacturing 
population has not only been fed at their expense, 
but has actually been created at their expense; in 
other words that the very existence of this class is in 
a large measure to be regarded as the corollary of 
their own ruin. To use the language of Mr. Eider 
Haggard, in that lively book of his, A Farmer's 
Year J the dwellers in towns, " subsisting on foreign 
produce, imagine that to them the prosperity or ruin 
of British land is a matter of indifference, affecting 
only some few tens of thousands of the owners of 
the soil in whose future they are not concerned, 
whereas the gradual depopulation of the country dis- 
tricts is likely to bring about national consequences 
of the gravest character." I have, I know, already 
dwelt, more than once, upon this danger and evil; 
but, as it seems to me, its importance and urgency 
justify some repetition and demand from anyone 



HOME GROWTH. 233 

attempting to sum up the pros and cons of national 
progress during the century, the fullest recognition 
and insistence, for if this constant drain on the agri- 
cultural population is not checked, I am persuaded 
that all our progress will count for nothing, and that 
our ruin as a people is inevitable. 

Meanwhile it is permissible to make the most of 
that progress, since we have paid and are paying 
for it at so ruinous a cost. The glorifiers of this 
material progress dwell upon this increase in the 
output of coal and iron, and of all the various in- 
dustries and manufactures resulting therefrom — 
cotton, wool, the textile manufactures generally — 
untroubled by the thought that the day may come 
when we shall be unable to compete with countries 
possessing coal and iron resources ten times as ex- 
tensive as our own. So far as the century goes, 
so far as the present movement goes, there is no 
sign of any serious setback. Our foreign trade has 
reached enormous proportions. Our exports to for- 
eign countries exceed in value £200,000,000 an- 
nually, whereas at the beginning of the century they 
were probably less than 30 millions, seeing that the 
total exports, including India and the colonies, are 
set down at 34^ millions. At that time the imports 
from foreign countries only amounted to about 15 
millions, nearly a similar total representing the 
imports from India, the West Indies and a few 
other colonies, ^ow the imports from foreign coun- 
tries amount to upwards of £360,000,000, in other 



234: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

words, they are twentyj-f our times what they were at 
the beginning of the century. Of course this result 
is largely due to the fact that England alone of all 
the countries of the world, offers a free market to 
the foreigner. 

For the rest we might heap up figures in columns 
and fill page after page, all telling the same tale, all 
supplying conclusive evidence of the remarkable 
prosperity of the country. 'No doubt these figures 
are impressive enough, but however impressive, how- 
ever much we may be satisfied with our colossal 
wealth and our astonishing progress, certain con- 
siderations of cost have to be taken into account, 
considerations we are exceedingly prone to forget, 
but of which we may be sure our continental rivals 
and critics take careful and gratified note, expectant 
of the time when the account shall be presented 
against us in their favour. 



THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 235 



CHAPTEK X. 



" THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 



The past exercises a potent spell over the minds 
of imaginative folk. It requires imagination of a 
high order and a great measure of faith, to be keenly 
interested in the future. The future, save in the 
sense that every man lives in his descendants, is 
beyond us ; we are removed from it by the phenom- 
enon of death. Yet the men who have founded 
families and planted empires, in doing what they 
did, have lived in the future, that is to say, the 
future beyond their own existence. For them the 
progress of their own particular race, either in a 
family or a national sense, in the days to come, 
when as they knew it was more than likely they 
themselves would not so much as exist as a memory, 
even as a name, was a matter of the utmost impor- 
tance. The most virile sections of the human family 
invariably fall under the spell of this form of de- 
scendant-worship. Still the past is, in a direct and 
tangible sense, a more actual possession with the 
living than the future can ever be. History, tradi- 
tion, personal narrative, all combine to give it shape 
and reality; its monuments are before our eyes; its 



236 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

records confront us wherever we go. It has con- 
crete existence. 

Also from an aesthetic point of view the past has 
infinite charm. In a physical sense the lapse of 
time beautifies the ugly, and adds to the beauty of 
the beautiful. I^o spick and span building fresh 
from the mason's hands can compare in interest, 
suggestion and poetry with the historic ruins of the 
world. So, too, as we advance from any social, po- 
litical and domestic order of things, we are apt to 
lose sight of all in them that was harsh, ugly and 
unjust, and to remember only what was — or possibly 
only now appears to us to have been — attractive and 
agreeable. The feudal times are supposed to have 
been the age of chivalry; but it is quite obvious, 
when we come to examine into the matter, that chiv- 
alry was rarer then than it is to-day. Similarly the 
days of the Georges, and the early Victorian days 
have a great charm for those among us who are too 
young to have touched the first through our parents, 
or to have experienced the second in our own per- 
sons. 

That the conditions of life were hard enough in 
all our colonies during the early part of the century, 
every one would be prepared to admit; though the 
glamour through which those days are viewed, 
especially by Englishmen belonging to the Mother- 
land, is perhaps more deceptive than in the case of 
Great Britain herself. Mr. Theal, the historian of 
South Africa, has painted for us a vivid picture of 



♦'THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 237 

life in that colony during the early part of the cen- 
tury. " The ordinary conveniences of life/' says 
Mr. Theal, " were obtainable in and about Cape 
Town, and were enjoyed by most of the whites; but 
on the lone farms in the interior, comfort, as it is 
understood now-a-days, was an unknown word. The 
hovels in v/hich the graziers lived, seldom con- 
tained two rooms, frequently only one. They were 
destitute of the most ordinary furniture. The great 
waggon-chest which served for a table as well as a 
receptacle for clothing, a couple of camp-stools and 
a kartel or two (wooden frames with a network of 
strips of raw-hide stretched across them) were the 
only household goods possessed by many.'' Crock- 
ery was absent, so were knives and forks. Clothing 
and blankets were made of skins ; a gun, ammunition 
and a waggon were the squatters' only possessions, 
save a few cotton goods for shirts, and clothing for 
the women; hats, coffee and sugar were about the 
only other articles the Boer ever thought of pur- 
chasing. There was no poverty, but on the other 
hand the standard of life was scarcely higher than 
that of the savages over whom the Boers exercised 
almost absolute control, and from whom the chief 
point of difference was the strong religious feeling 
which characterised the Dutchmen. 

Under British rule this primitive condition of af- 
fairs gradually gave way ; and indeed it is certain 
that still earlier a sprinkling of families, even in 
the up-country districts, maintained a much higher 



238 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

standard of living. Witness the old country houses 
at the Paarl, Stellenbosch and elsewhere. Again it 
is a well-known fact that Mr. Cecil Ehodes' agents 
obtained some extremely handsome pieces of old 
Dutch furniture for that statesman's mansion at 
Groot Schuur, in remote parts of the colony. 
Doubtless many of these were removed from the 
more populous districts and towns later than the first 
few years of the century. In the main, then, Mr. 
Theal's account is accurate enough. Civilisation 
centred around Cape Town, extending to the Paarl, 
Stellenbosch, and in a lesser degree to Worcester, 
Tulbagh and Malmesbury. For the nearest approach 
to-day to the conditions of life portrayed by the 
Cape historian as those obtaining in the up-country 
districts during the early days of British occupa- 
tion, we must go to the ^^ Poor Whites " of Cape 
Colony. These unhappy creatures, how to deal with 
whom constitutes one of the greatest social problems 
of the colony at this moment, are the outcome of a 
bad system of education, and a doubtful system of 
land inheritance, under which at the death of a pro- 
prietor, his property is equally divided among his 
children. Division and subdivision through a half- 
dozen or a half-score generations results in an in- 
heritance being whittled down to a few square yards, 
and this is commonly mortgaged up to the hilt, to the 
" cute '^ man of the neighbouring doiy. On this little 
patch the descendants of the owner of wide acres 
insist on living, or rather existing. Manual labour 



"THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 2B9 

has always been the badge of inferiority ; the portion 
of the black man. The Poor White is too proud to 
work, and too stupid to learn, and his lot is a piti- 
able one. 

As to Australia, although during the early years 
of the century it made some progress in agriculture 
— and at that time J^ew South Wales was the only 
Australian colony, for Victoria was not formed into 
a distinct colony until a few years before Her Maj- 
esty came to the throne — it cannot be said of the 
continent generally that it was a desirable place to 
live in, until the century had run many years of its 
course. Governor Hunter introduced sheep from the 
Cape, and under his six or seven years' rule the colony 
made decided progress; but the labour of convicts 
is never satisfactory; and the 'New South Wales 
Corps, which practically ruled the roost, debauched 
the emancipated convicts and immigrants with rum, 
and generally indulged in all manner of rowdyism 
and misconduct. When General Macquarie suc- 
ceeded to the government in 1810, he described the 
colony in very gloomy terms as barely emerging 
from " infantile imbecilit}^,'' and as suffering from 
various privations and disabilities. He further said 
that the country was impenetrable beyond forty miles 
from Sydney, that agriculture was in a languishing 
state, that there was no revenue, and that the popula- 
tion in general was depressed by poverty, and in the 
lowest state of debasement and neglect; religion at 
a discount, roads impassable, public buildings col- 



240 PROGPwESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

lapsing, and famine imminent. Through sucli troub- 
lous times Australia passed before the discovery of 
gold and its systematic exploration, which may be 
said to date from the middle of the century. Gold 
gave the necessary stimulus to its fortunes, of which 
pastoral pursuits may be said to be the solid founda- 
tion. 

Canada, as we understand the term now, was a 
comparatively small affair at the beginning of the 
century; though it was founded more than a hun- 
dred years earlier than the Cape, and two and a half 
centuries earlier than I*^ew South Wales. When the 
century opened, the populous portions of Canada 
were already in the enjoyment of a considerable 
degree of prosperity, both in Upper and Lower 
Canada, although these legislative divisions, which 
had practically effected the isolation of the English 
from the French population, did not eventuate in 
that increase of harmony which had been hoped from 
the measure. This, however, is a political issue 
with which I am not directly concerned. It may be 
admitted at once that the conditions of life in Canada 
were on the whole less strenuous and exacting, from 
the point of view of material well-being, than those 
which obtained in other portions of our nascent Em- 
pire, due mainly to the fact that the country had 
been settled longer, and that it was settled by persons 
of very much higher social and intellectual status 
than those who colonised Australia; while if it be 
admitted that a certain percentage of the original 



"THE GOOD OLD TIMES.'' 241 

Dutch and French colonisers of South Africa were 
of as high a grade, socially and mentally, as the 
French and English colonisers of Canada, it must 
be remembered that the South African colonists suf- 
fered deterioration as the result of their practical 
isolation, whereas the continent of America lived and 
moved and had its being not apart from, but allowing 
for the difficulties of communication^ in actual con- 
tact and association with the hub and progress of the 
Old World. 

So far as the West Indies are concerned, it is only 
too true that their prosperity, built up as it was 
upon slave labour, and upon its sugar industry, has 
never survived the freeing of the slaves, and the 
high protective tariff on sugar imposed by foreign 
countries. The landowners of Jamaica were for 
the most part absentee-proprietors, and the islands 
can scarcely be regarded as colonies in the true sense 
of the word, though of course they are not essentially 
dependencies of the Empire — they are Crown Colo- 
nies and quasi-Crown Colonies — in the sense that 
India and the Straits Settlements are. Jamaica 
is none the less a part of the British Empire, and as 
such it is not agreeable to have to record that from 
the earliest days of the century until the present 
time it has been gradually declining in prosperity; 
nor is there the slightest prospect of any improve- 
ment until the British Government rises to that true 
conception of its duties as the government, not merely 

of the United Kingdom in the exclusive interests of 
i6 



242 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

that Kingdom, but of the United Empire in the 
collective interests of that Empire. 

I have purposely dealt with the condition of 
the peoples of the British colonies at the be- 
ginning of the century, before examining into 
the condition of the people of the United King- 
dom, because the progress in material comfort 
and well-being of the latter has been largely 
reflected in the colonies, which apart on the one 
hand from local causes, such as native wars and in- 
ter-racial and intercolonial jealousies, causes which 
have exercised for the most part a deterrent influence 
on progress, and on the other of the discoveries of 
precious stones and metals, which on the whole have 
made for progress, the growth and advancement of 
the colonies have resulted from the growth and ad- 
vancement, of the United Kingdom. The pages 
which have preceded this, certainly contain no lack 
of data as to the sources of this growth, and in suc- 
ceeding ones it will fall to me to show how the em- 
ployment of steam and electricity as means of com- 
munication between man and man, has tended to 
diffuse the gains of brain and sinew throughout the 
Empire, even into its furthest extremities. 

Before attempting a detailed picture of the changes 
resulting from these potent causes, I intend to ad- 
duce certain evidence — it comes from a source I 
know to be unimpeachable — of the extraordinary im- 
provement in those conditions of life which most 
narrowly affect the poorer classes of the people of 



« THE GOOD OLD TIMES.'' 243 

the United Kingdom, and especially in its rural dis- 
tricts, which have chanced to come under my notice. 
Some time since — it was during the last days of 1897 
and the earlier days of 1898— the editor of a county 
journal, the West Sussex Gazette, conceived the idea 
of inviting the labouring classes of Sussex, Kent, 
Surrey and Hampshire to give their impressions 
of the difference between the early days of the cen- 
tury and the present time. The invitation resulted 
in the reception of as valuable a batch of human 
documents as ever came into an editor's possession. 
One by one the members of the ^' Old Guard '' (as 
these deponents were called) gave their evidence, 
and almost to a man stoutly declared that so far 
from the old days being good, they were exceedingly 
bad as compared with the present time. It must 
be remembered that all these witnesses, in writing of 
their birth and boyhood, are writing of a time of ab- 
normal depression, when England was reduced to 
a condition of exhaustion by reason of the enormous 
cost of the French war. 

" Before Free Trade/' says one humble deponent, 
^^ sugar was 7d. per lb., tea was 5d. an ounce and 
bread was very dear at all times, sometimes wheat 
was £20 a load, and I have known it £35 a load, but 
not lasting for long. Our wages were 6s. to 9s. a 
week, and we could not get work half our time. We 
lived on potatoes. They wore round frocks if we 
could get us one. l^ow, gentlemen, I am going to 
thank you kindly for good deeds you have done for 



244: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

■us in taking the duty off tea and malt and sugar and 
bread." 

Another writes that he was a head carter at 8s. Id. 
a week. " Women used to help then on the farm as 
well as men. There used to be 18 females at a time 
dragging a drag rake and now they have horses. At 
that time there was a prize given for bringing up 
your family without going to the parish, and I had 
£3 and my wife only had eleven in family. Fresh 
butter was 9d. to lOd. a lb., now it varies from Is. Id. 
to Is. 5d. Tea was 5s. a lb., now we get it for a 
shilling. Coarse salt was from 16s. to a guinea a 
bushel in my young days. Loaf sugar 8d. a lb., 
and moist 4:d. to 6d. per lb. I have paid Is. 4d. 
for a letter to go from Petersfield to the Isle of 
Wight. I had 5 miles a day to walk for my school- 
ing." 

The statements as to the price of tea, sugar, salt, 
raisins and currants, and the ordinary necessities 
of life, as the labourer regards them to-day, all go 
to show that on the average these commodities cost 
three times as much in the early part of the century 
as they do to-day. Sussex roads were proverbially 
bad, but now they are on the whole excellent. One 
witness testifies that he had to wade through two 
miles of deep mud to get to a hard road which was 
" Oakley Stone Street or the old Roman Road." In 
many counties of England these old Roman roads 
were the only decent thoroughfares. ^^ A carrier's 
van," writes one old Sussexian, " went to Rudgwick 



" THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 245 

twice a week. Think of Monday, at about 10 or 11 
o'clock, cramped up in that van until 5 or 6 o'clock 
on Tuesday." 

From another member of the '' Old Guard " we 
learn that when he was a boy, the roads were all so 
bad the carters were obliged to walk over in the 
fields to drive the horses. " The horses were up to 
their knees in mud and water." An old fellow of 
80 tells what the first local motives (sic) were like. 
" The first ride I had, the carriages were like the 
bullock trucks of the present day. Then for a time 
the third-class carriages were something better, but 
open at the sides and wind enough to blow you out 
of the window. . . . Wages are double to what 
they were then. Some articles of food are nearly 
half the price they were then. In our church serv- 
ices they used to have the bassoon, or at best a barrel 
organ to lead the singing." 

Rather a sombre shadow on the progress of modern 
times is thrown by a bailiff who had brought up 15 
children ; in referring to the improvement in edu- 
cation he says every one of his boys can beat him. 
But he adds sententiously, " Boys get so well edu- 
cated that they won't look at hard work." This is 
an aspect of education as affecting progress in the 
agricultural districts to which I must refer in detail 
later. It is sad to think that all our village looms 
are still ; that the handicrafts which used to thrive 
in every village have become extinct. The wood 
carver and stone carver who have left their mark 



246 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

on churcli, manor house, cottage and in tlie cHnrcli- 
yard of the towns and hamlets of Old England, have 
been replaced by a stereotyped person from the great 
cities. The artistic and inventive talent of each 
locality has been stamped out, and men are reduced 
to mere automata. This in any case cannot mean 
an increase of happiness, or of real prosperity. The 
joy in performance, in work done as well as it could 
be done, has gone, and each man hurries to get 
through his appointed task which he rushes through 
indifferently, anxious to be free to " enjoy himself '' 
in some hanal and senseless amusement which, if 
he only knew it, bores him far more than his despised 
daily toil. 

To revert to agriculture, pure and simple. Mr. 
Rider Haggard has recently declared that he is at 
a loss to procure experienced ploughmen and trench- 
ers for the small acreage, less than 400 acres, he 
farms in l^orfolk; and that even a good milker is 
becoming a rarity in the land. Again there is the 
fact bluntly stated by the old bailiff of Lavington 
in the West Sussex Gazette, that " boys get so well 
educated they won't look at work." This awkward 
fact is responsible for the awkward truth that we 
pay away millions of pounds yearly to the little 
culturists of the continent for fruit, and no less a 
sum for eggs. And yet at the beginning of the cen- 
tury (and even now this is the case in some parts 
of England, Devonshire for instance, but there is no 
agency for collecting them) new-laid eggs were 



"THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 247 

sold at the rate of 28 for a shilling. An octogen- 
arian declares that he went to work at six years old 
woodcutting; and at nine was sold under the ham- 
mer, similar to an auction sale, and was obliged to 
stay in the one place for a certain period. " When 
I left, the master gave me sixpence for my year's 
service." !N^evertheless he got education enough, 
probably from the I^ational School, though he does 
not say so, to become parish clerk in after life. He 
had been in that capacity for forty years when he 
volunteered this evidence, but strangely enough edu- 
cation had no friend in him. " Too much education 
for the working man and woman,'' he says, " makes 
them idle, wanting to get their living without work." 
He then proceeds to deliver a homily on the man- 
agement of children who now " want to be over their 
elder ones, and do not seem to understand the word 
^ obey.' " When I was five years old, I had six 
months' schooling. But I managed to read fairly 
well, and write a little." 

The wonderful change in dress employs the pens 
of some of these witnesses. " The round smock was 
the garb for men, the blue print dress and red cloak 
and coal scuttle bonnet and a pair of pattens with 
rings as big as saucers and about three inches wide 
to go to church, was the Sunday best of the women. 
ITow," continues this critic of modern manners, " it 
must be all the colours of the rainbow, with hats 
adorned with feathers and heaven knows what, for 
I don't." As to dress, I can bring evidence to bear 



248 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

upon this from a higher social scale. Only a few 
days before her death, which took place recently, a 
lady of good family, the daughter of an army officer, 
and the widow of a colonel in the Grenadier Guards, 
who had passed her 98th year, informed me that in 
her yoimger days, girls had two bonnets at the most 
and two dresses and a shawl, and were quite con- 
tented to keep them for years. If women were not 
so fashionable in those days, no wonder matrimony 
was more so. 

That they made things more substantially at the 
beginning of the century than now is unhappily too 
true, but few would be prepared for such conclusive 
evidence of the fact as that supplied by a Sussex 
yokel, who declares that he uses to-day an umbrella 
given to his mother on her marriage in 1806. " I 
used to carry it," he writes, " when four or five 
years old to the grocer's shop on little errands." 
He expresses a strong conviction that there is plenty 
of work for every man to do, ^^ if he chooses to do it. 
They are better paid now in general," he writes, 
^^ than they were 60 or 70 years ago. Unionism I 
do not like; it only encourages lazy brainless muffs 
to get the same wages as a good workman. There is 
plenty of food, and much cheaper than in days gone 
by. The present time is the best I have ever seen 
for old and young." Evidently George Artell re- 
gards the end of the century as the Golden Age. 

An old man who was born in the parish of Warn- 
ham at about the time his fellow parishioner, Percy 



"THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 249 

Bjsshe Shelley left it for good, testifies to the scar- 
city of work in his youth, necessitating labourers 
taking it in turn to work at anything that was going 
on alternate weeks. It is only fair to note this, as 
it shows the villages can be, and have been, too full 
of labourers. " There was no cricket, no football, 
no amusement," writes this Warnham man, "and 
only one day in the year, the Club day, when the 
villagers had any fun. The parish owned the cot- 
tages, and often put several families into one cottage, 
but they only allowed one bedroom for a family, 
and downstairs one family would live in the kitchen, 
and another in the wash-house, and one in the par- 
lour." It may be remarked that this state of affairs 
and worse now obtains largely in crowded cities, 
despite the increase in buildings. " We had to live," 
says this witness in conclusion, " much harder lives 
than now, and we are looked after much better." 
Such evidence as this — for the circumstances and 
facts narrated must have passed beneath his eyes 
daily — throws a strong light on the poet Shelley's 
fervid diatribes on the oppression of the people, 
and their selfish exploitation as so much flesh and 
blood to be hired at the smallest cost; and explains 
the fierce denunciation of the landowners which fills 
so many of his earlier poems. 

A farm labourer in his 88th year, who had worked 
on one farm for 60 years, somewhat quaintly sum- 
marises the changes he had seen in his village during 
those years. " Four changes at the farm, ^ve at 



250 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the church, four at the grocer's shop, and ten at the 
village inn." The village inn is death to its land- 
lord, as I have myself observed; and until an inn 
gets into the hands of a woman, widow or daughter 
of a previous holder, length of tenure in the hands 
of one person is rare. This witness further testifies 
that he had often been a night watchman in the 
churchyard to ward off the approach of body- 
snatchers, ^' especially after the burial of a wealthy 
person." 

'^ I think," says another of the Old Guard, " I 
never knew our neighbourhood (Ashington, near 
Worthing) in such a prosperous state as it is at the 
present day, and I am quite sure that it is a great 
deal more religious than it was when I was a young 
man." A Worthing fisherman, in his 87th year, 
declares that, " Just after Waterloo, bread was 7d. 
to 8d. the 2 lb. loaf, and everything else was from 
four to five times as dear as it is now. Now a man 
with 5s. a week is better off than he would be with 
30s. a week when I was a youna:; man, and he can 
earn a pound a week and a good deal more." We 
have not yet done with these letters. There are 
scores of them, and in my opinion their worth is 
beyond all price. One correspondent tells of child 
labour, the unhappy youngsters sent to sweep chim- 
neys in the early days of the century, and that most 
people one met wore pitted with smallpox, which 
fact calls to mind that the progress in medical science 
and especially in sanitary and surgical science^ and 



" THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 251 

the enormous increase in proportion to population 
of physicians and surgeons, have greatly added to 
the health and happiness of the people. Other coun- 
trymen give descriptions of the riots arising from 
the introduction of steam threshing machines; of 
the economic changes resulting from substitution 
of coal for wood, and matches for the tinder-box; 
of the newspaper costing 7d. and Moore's Almanac 
2s. 7d. ; of the casual way the dead were interred, 
and so forth. " Young men," declares a veteran of 
95, "were a sight worse off when I went to work at 
8 years old. I^ow they get better wages, better 
clothes, work shorter time and easier, and get more 
holidays. I know because I have been a labouring 
man all my days, and from 1812 to 1888 I never 
had a day's illness, and now I am 95." 

It will be seen that those members of the rural 
working class who are old enough to judge, declare 
with almost unanimous voice that the conditions of 
life have vastly improved since the battle of Trafal- 
gar was fought, though some of these shrewd ob- 
servers are acute enough to remember that there is a 
reverse side to the shield, and that all this progress 
has not been achieved without entailing sacrifices — 
losses here and retrogression there. One old house- 
wife says sententiously, " Wages v/ere not so good, 
but men were more satisfied." If this be true, and it 
is to be feared it is only too near the truth, there can 
have been little gain, since content is the only road to 



252 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

happiness, and this, for all its progress, is the most 
discontented age the world has ever known, and as- 
suredly little of its discontent is divine. A careful 
witness of 80, while giving full weight to all that 
makes for progress, roundly declares, " When I was 
21 the people were better off; I am satisfied they 
were. The commons were open, and lots of people 
could keep their pigs, cows and poultry. The hold- 
ings were so small, if a man offended one holder he 
was able to get work with another. Almost the 
poorest had their pig, but very little fresh meat." 
But James Dudley of Coldharbour declares he could 
not afford to keep a pig, for salt was 3s. 6d. a gallon, 
and it would cost 12s. to salt it down. His case 
must have been general. The complaint that the 
commons have been illegally enclosed, ^^ jumped," 
as they would say in South Africa, and diverted 
from their original purpose, is only too true, and the 
fact is a sad reproach to the landowners. There are 
places in Sussex where the very name of the village 
or hamlet denotes the existence of a green. Buck's 
Green for instance, but where not a vestige of the 
" green " remains. Finally, the pessimist I have 
quoted, declares that the condition of morals is worse 
than it was, a state of affairs he somewhat arbitrarily 
sets down to short service in the army. 

As to whether James Maidment of Graffham is 
right in his opinion that morals have deteriorated, 
or whether a witness I previously quoted is right in 



** THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 253 

stating that the people are far more religious than 
formerly, something must be said later, but it may 
be said at once that, paradoxical as it may appear, 
each contention is right, while each is wrong. So far, 
however, as the evidence of these veterans goes, and 
it goes very far indeed, no one will deny, taking it 
en hloc, that it supplies unanswerable evidence of an 
immense improvement in the social condition of the 
people since the beginning of the century. This evi- 
dence has been quoted at some length because I was 
immensely struck with it when it was first brought 
under my notice. Its worth is incalculable. Tons 
of statistics could not pretend to be nearly so valu- 
able as these simple annals of the poor. They deal 
exclusively with the condition of the population still 
retained in the rural districts. The whole bearing 
and significance of the facts would be lost were hur- 
ried thinkers to deduce from them a justification 
for the policy which is gradually emptying the coun- 
try of its labourers. Given reasonable economic con- 
ditions instead of having less land under cultivation 
than at the beginning of the century, double or three 
times the land might be turned to account. The com- 
parative happiness of this remnant of the rural peas- 
antry is only remotely due to the removal of com- 
petitive conditions, and there is room on the land 
for three times the labourers, all of whom might be 
as prosperous relatively as the agricultural labourer 
of to-day. Eighteen shillings a week in a town, with 
its high rents, and its incessant inducements to ex- 



254 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

penditure, is not equal to twelve shillings a week in 
the country, with its low rents and pure air. It has 
been admitted already that it is only the reduction in 
the price of the necessities of life which has brought 
many things which their ancestors regarded as lux- 
uries, within reach of the pastoral population, but 
that the exodus of that population to the towns has 
done as much. We may also admit that the exceed- 
ingly evil consequences resulting from the crowding 
of the people into great cities have been minimised by 
the enormous strides sanitary science has made, and 
by the determined, but still wholly inadequate efforts 
of the well-to-do classes, — whose consciences have 
been awakened, in a large measure, through a lively 
sense of their own danger, — to improve the normal 
conditions of life in great towns, by providing better 
homes for the people, and better and more wholesome 
food. Moreover, legislative enactments have supple- 
mented the work of charitable organisations ; and the 
task of elevating and humanising the working classes, 
and the numerous grades between those classes and 
the indigent poor, has gone on apace. 

But facts are hard taskmasters. I have already 
cited that particularly hard one that after three or 
four generations of interbreeding in great cities, 
sterilisation results. It may be open to the philoso- 
pher to answer that there is no evil in this, since it is 
a natural law, which in its workings secures the 
beneficent result, that the unfit shall cease to cum- 
ber the earth, and that the population shall not get 



♦♦ THE GOOD OLD TIMES." ^55 

in front of the capacity of the earth to feed the peo- 
ple, and man's capacity to utilise its resources to 
that end. Mr. Charles Booth, in one of those won- 
derful books of his which deal with the labour of 
the people and the condition of the aged poor, and 
with kindred questions affecting the masses, says, 
and the assertion is based on the most minute and 
careful examination of statistics, that the varying 
ratio of improvement in the condition of the people 
coincides with the degrees of general progress and 
prosperity, and that since, happily, the country has 
been steadily growing in prosperity, the people have 
everywhere grown less poor. " If we compare,'' he 
adds, " pauperism generally with the movement of 
population, it appears that not only is the rate of 
pauperism much higher where population has de- 
creased, but the rate of improvement is much lower." 
This is true, he says, everywhere except in London. 
The statement is unimpeachable, though it is some- 
what startling at first sight, and of course cannot be 
taken as applying to the movements of population 
stretching over a century. ISTevertheless, when one 
comes to consider the statement seriously it is 
found to coincide with the impressions deduced from 
observations and experience. 

The truth is, the glamour of London attracts not 
only the high-spirited, daring and adventurous from 
all parts of the kingdom, it also attracts the infirm 
of purpose, the idle and the dissolute. Being the 
centre of the world's wealth, it draws to it not only 



^56 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

those men who feel they can work for that wealth 
and so gain a share of it, but men who hope to gain 
it without working at all. The men who have the 
capacity to gain are commonly out of it before their 
children have grown to man's or woman's estate ; the 
invertebrates remain. 

Towards the end of the last century, the poor of 
England and France had found champions^ and the 
severities of the old Poor Laws had come to be re- 
garded with disfavour in this country, not so much, 
as Mr. Eobert Mackenzie says in his History of the 
Nineteenth Century, because of an enhanced tender- 
ness of feeling toward the poor, but because the re- 
sults of widespread disaffection were feared. Then 
it was the Poor Laws were relaxed so completely as 
actually to offer a premium to idleness ; it is in fact 
the lively appreciation of the evil consequences fol- 
lowing on this extraordinary laxity, which makes our 
statesmen to-day so reluctant to inau.gurate a system 
of old-age pensions — a system, by the way, already 
operative in E'ew Zealand. In 1782 able-bodied 
labourers were no longer obliged to enter the poor- 
house; money was given them in their homes, and 
insufficient wages were supplemented from the rates. 
In 1801, when the population of the United King- 
dom did not exceed 16,345,646 souls, and its re- 
sources were quite inconsiderable in comparison 
with its present wealth, £4,000,000 was expended on 
the relief of the poor, and this sum had doubled 
itself by 1818. Matters had arrived at such a pass in 



•'THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 257 

many districts, that landowners offered to relinquish 
their land to the parish in consideration of being re- 
lieved from these intolerable rates. In some cases 
the paupers actually assembled and declared that 
they would not accept the land of the parish, but 
would continue under the then existing system. In 
point of fact, they regarded themselves as possess- 
ing an inalienable right to be supported by the own- 
ers of the land. 

It will be seen, therefore, that a kind of rough 
and ready, but quite effective system of state social- 
ism actually existed in England in the early part of 
the century, and that pauperism became, so to speak, 
hereditary in families. In 1834 an attempt was 
made to remedy this state of affairs, and for a time 
with great success. The system of giving out-door 
relief was abolished. Little by little the guardians 
reverted to it. Then came another pull up, and to- 
day the system is strenuously opposed by the au- 
thorities on principle; but the guardians being for 
the most part humane men, who have lived all their 
lives among the old folk claiming relief, naturally 
hesitate to condemn their humble neighbours to what 
they all regard as imprisonment. Hence the expen- 
sive system of out-door relief has grown apace to- 
gether with the rates since the early days of poor-law 
reform in the thirties. In examining the statistics of 
poor-law relief one has, however, to be careful, since 
all manner of charges, not properly coming under 
the head of poor rates, have been grouped under this 
17 



258 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

denomination, with the result that the total expendi- 
ture on Poor Eates for 1897 is given at £24,761,618. 
More than half of this sum was expended on the 
School Board, police, county and borough rates, and 
half a dozen other objects which cannot with pro- 
priety be described as the relief of the poor. Mean- 
while there has been an appreciable decline in the 
number of paupers, for in 1850 they amounted, for 
the United Kingdom, to 1,308,000, or 48 per 1,000 
of the population ; in 1870, to 1,279,000, or 41 per 
J, 000; in 1896 to 1,025,000, or 26 per 1,000. The 
tendency continues to a decline in the numbers and 
ratio of pauperism, though the figures fluctuate. Mr. 
Mulhall points out that we spend twice as much on 
each pauper as we did in 1850, though the burthen 
of poor rates on the public is not perceptibly greater, 
being 72 pence per inhabitant to-day, or there- 
abouts, as against 68 in 1850. The condition of the 
people of Ireland, notwithstanding the fact that 
more than half the population have left their native 
land during the century, is far less favourable. 
Since 1870 the number of paupers has risen 34 per 
cent., while the population has fallen 15 per cent., 
figures which seem to justify Mr. Charles Booth's 
conclusions, already quoted; though the fact that 
the ratio of wealth per head has increased, indicates 
a contrary conclusion. However, figures, which in a 
work like this it is necessary to give, but for which 
I confess I have the smallest respect, since they can 
be made to prove anything, are delusive in this case, 



''THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 259 

as in many others. What is more to the point and 
Letter worth registering, is the re-assuring fact that 
the efforts of a considerable body of benevolent men 
and women to humanise the workhouse are bearing 
fruit, slowly but surely. The subject is a seductive 
one for me, holding strongly, as I do, that in any 
case the veterans of labour, who have done their duty 
splendidly to the country by rearing large families, 
and to whom saving was an impossibility, should re- 
ceive every consideration in their old age. There 
are scores of ways in which their sad existence could 
be brightened. 

As to the general improvement In living during 
this century, that is amply proved by the facts ad- 
duced in the earlier part of this chapter. During 
the sixty years or so of Her Majesty's reign, the con- 
sumption of meat per head of the population has 
risen to 110 lbs. from 75 lbs., and of sugar to 88 lbs. 
from 16 lbs., figures which compare most favour- 
ably with similar statistics referring to any foreign 
country. In 1850, savings bank depositors numbered 
39 per 1,000 of the inhabitants, now they reach 203 
per 1,000; in fact, there are more depositors than 
homes; and it may be said that, on the average, at 
least one member of every family has an account. 
This is a marvellous increase of thrift among a 
people still to be accounted extremely thriftless in 
comparison with any other nation. There has been, 
too, a wonderful increase in the number of persons 
insuring their lives,' which is, after all, another form 
of saving. 



260 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

But with all this progress we still, as Professor 
Huxley, Mr. Charles Booth, Dr. Barnardo, Lord 
Meath, Miss Octavia Hill, General Booth, and a 
thousand other workers for the good of the people, 
continually proclaim, fall lamentably short of our 
duty to our neighbour. Mr. George R. Sims' lurid 
picture of how the poor live in the London slums 
is unhappily as true to-day as it was when the book 
was written, as those who have read Mr. Richard 
Whiteing's vivid and truthful account, cast in fic- 
tional guise, of the state of the very poor may know, 
should actual experience have been denied them. 
We are exceedingly prosperous, but we let our hos- 
pitals languish for want of funds. It will be a reve- 
lation to most Englishmen to be told — for we imagine 
ourselves to be the most humane of peoples — that 
whereas England has 496 hospitals and 16,400 beds 
for 145,000 patients, the hospitals of Erance have 
72,000 beds for 438,000 patients. These figures are 
not absolutely current, though they are recent ones. 
Despite what Mr. Peabody did, and what Lady Bur- 
dett-Coutts, Lord Rowton and many others are 
doing, we still do less than a quarter we ought to do 
to provide decent dwellings for the people, to whom 
the prosperous and comfortable classes owe, and it 
is scarcely too much to say exclusively owe, the con- 
ditions which make it possible for them to enjoy 
that varying, but on the whole exceedingly high 
standard of comfort and ease they command. 

Obviously the varying prosperity, and in recent 



" THE GOOD OLD TIMES." 261 

years the steady growth of prosperity in every por- 
tion of the United Kingdom — unhappily it is 
scarcely possible to add Ireland, that distressful 
country from which prosperity would seem to be 
permanently estranged — has had a decided influence 
in many directions upon the growth and development 
of the Colonies. The development of our manu- 
factures has made a demand upon their raw mate- 
rials, while the skill and activity of English railway 
engineers and contractors has transmitted its vitalis- 
ing energy to remote parts of the Emj)ire, to mention 
two only of the numerous benefits derivable by our 
sons and daughters across the seas from the progress 
of the Motherland. On the other hand, there can be 
no doubt that easy conditions of life at home have 
retarded the movement of large masses of people to 
these limbs of the Empire abroad, where they would 
have contributed enormously to the strength and 
stability of Her Majesty's extra-insular dominions. 



262 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTEK XL 

COMMUNICATION. 

It is safe to say that in no department of human 
activity and progress during the last hundred years 
has the change been so marked as in communication. 
At the beginning of the century, as has been already 
remarked in the previous chapter, the highways of 
the United Kingdom were practically confined to the 
main roads between London and the other large 
towns; highways supported by tolls levied at fre- 
quent turnpikes. The stage coach was practically the 
only means of communication for passengers, save of 
course such private means as .carriages for the rich 
and waggons for the poor. What travelling was like 
then every well-read person knows. The romances of 
the early part of the century, the diaries of persons 
of quality, to say nothing of the picturesque litera- 
ture of to-day which deals retrospectively with the 
subject, combine to convey to the mind a vivid im- 
pression of its manifest inconveniences. As recently 
as the Christmas of 1898 I chanced to enjoy the ad- 
vantage of listening to an old lady, then in her 99th 
year, who gave me many word pictures of journeys 
from Edinburgh to London, and from London to 
JBath, as to convince me, as touching stage-coaches^ 



COMMUNICATION. 263 

how greatly distance lends enchantment to the view ; 
and that eager as we • are to revive the pleasures of 
that mode of travelling, continuons journeys, day by 
day, were fraught with far more disagreeables, even 
for the possessors of heavy purses, than those asso- 
ciated with third-class railway travelling to-day. Of 
course in those days, the old-fashioned gallantry of 
the men contributed, in some measure, to mitigate 
for the ladies the manifold disagreeables of the road. 
In the winter male travellers would bring from the 
posting-houses, steaming bumpers, and by using a 
judicious method, in which firmness and coaxing had 
their part, induce the coyest maiden, first to sip and 
finally to drain the glass to the dregs. 

Apart, however, from these little amenities of the 
road, inland travelling in the early part of the cen- 
tury, even so far as the United Kingdom was con- 
cerned, was anything but a charming experience, 
and such as it was, it was confined almost exclusively 
to the wealthier classes, or to persons, " bagmen," 
and their like, whose business obliged them to move 
about from place to place. Highwa^Tnen gave the 
zest of danger to the road; the risk of being 
snowed up or brought to a standstill by the bad con- 
dition of the thoroughfare, added to those elements 
of uncertainty which every traveller had to face. 
As to the local roads, they, of course, were of the 
very worst description, and to venture into them, in 
any vehicle lighter than the farm cart, was to court 
the fate of Queen Anne and Prince George of Den- 



264 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

mark, who on their journey from London to visit 
Petworth in Sussex — though this of course was in 
the previous century — had to be dragged out of the 
mud by cart horses, their coach having stuck hope- 
lessly in the ruts. The main roads had, even in 
Sussex, the latest county to possess decent roads, 
greatly improved during the eighteenth century, but 
the shorter thoroughfares continued to be of the 
kind which delayed Queen Anne's coach for a day 
and a night in the wilds of the Weald. 

Of course the colonies were in a far worse case 
as to internal communication, than the Motherland. 
It is not possible to refer in detail to the successive 
measures which have gradually provided most of our 
colonies with roads equal to, and in many cases 
superior to, the highways of the Motherland, since 
that gradual growth has really been coextensive with 
the growth of the colonies themselves. But, as in 
the British Isles, so in the colonies, the application 
of steam to territorial and aquarian locomotion, is 
the one invention which actually marks the dividing 
line between the methods of communication of the 
nineteenth century and those of previous ages. This 
invention has simply revolutionised the world, and 
especially the Anglo-Saxon world. 

It was in 1807, and it was in America, that steam 
was first turned to the purposes of riverian locomo- 
tion; a steamer successfully navigating the Hudson 
from E'ew York to Albany. Some time afterwards 
steamboats made their appearance on the Clyde, and 



COMMUNICATION. 265 

growing bolder, began to ply between Glasgow and 
London, and Holyhead and Dublin. It was not 
until the second year of the Queen's reign that the 
Atlantic was crossed by steamships in anything more 
than a merely tentative manner. In 1819, success- 
ful experiments had been made, while Canada can 
claim to have sent in 1830 the first steamship across 
the Atlantic. But for nearly twenty years, for all 
practical purposes, the idea lay dormant, no one ap- 
pearing to think that steam, as applied to steam navi- 
gation, could be largely employed. It was in fact 
regarded as a curiosity until the successful voy- 
ages of the Great Western and Sirius, between 
England and America, demonstrated its feasibility. 
Even then, for a long time, steam vessels were mainly 
used for coasting and passenger traffic. In 1843, 
the " screw " was successfully employed, and a few 
years later the ^Navigation Laws were repealed, 
the effect of which was to allow, with a few excep- 
tions, foreign vessels free commercial intercourse 
and equality with the ships of the Mother Country, 
her colonies and dependencies, throughout the Em- 
pire. 

It is curious to note that the Shipowners^ opposi- 
tion to this measure, went the length of demanding 
iliat all vessels built in the colonies should he recJc- 
oned as foreigyi, which shows how far the imperial 
idea had germinated in 1845, or thereabouts. It 
chanced that at this time the public mind was greatly 
exercised at the deterioration in the character of the 



266 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

British sailor, a condition ascribed to the monopoly 
which the ITavigation Laws had given to the mer- 
cantile marine. No doubt the destruction of this 
monopoly led to a gradual improvement in the status 
of the sailor, who now had to bring himself abreast 
of the sailors of other nations; but despite the 
growth of the British colonies and the further de- 
mand for shipping occasioned by the Crimean war^ 
British shipping was in a poor way until the Civil 
War in America threw a great part of the shipping 
of the United States into English hands. In 1860 
the tonnage of American vessels engaged in the 
direct trade between England and the States was 
2,245,000 tons. This had fallen to 480,000 tons in 
1865. British tonnage in those years had increased 
from 945,000 tons to 1,853,000. 

The substitution of steamers for sailing vessels 
has, of course, done more than anything to give 
Great Britain the lead as the great shipping nation 
of the world ; since the development of her iron and 
coal resources, and the ready distribution of these 
products, which her network of railways made pos- 
sible, have enabled her to build steamships advan- 
tageously, and to compete successfully with the rest 
of the world in this department of commercial 
energy. The total tonnage of British steamships, 
entered and cleared in the foreign trade nearly 
doubled between 1860 and 1865. Taking the figures 
for the world's steamships and sailing vessels of 100 
tons register and upwards, Lloyd's Register of 



COMMUNICATION. 267 

British and Foreign Shipping gives the total at 
26,561,250 tons, of which u^Dwards of half, or 13,- 
665,312 tons are British (United Kingdom and 
Colonies). Out of these totals a little more than 
7 million tons are sailing vessels, and of this roundly 
2^ millions are British. As to numbers, we have 
11,143 steamers to 3,441 sailing vessels. So that in 
the forty years since steamships first came into use, 
it may be said that they have practically supplanted 
sailing craft. 

Since 1892 the building of sailing ships has 
rapidly decreased. Thus, in that year sailing 
vessels formed a quarter of the year's output, but in 
1897 it was only 3 per cent, of the total. In recent 
years something like 25 per cent, of the total output 
has been built to the order of foreign or colonial 
shipowners. The increase in speed has been another 
noticeable feature connected with vessels built dur- 
ing the last two decades. Some of the Cunard steam- 
ers average 19-1 knots an hour, the average of the 
P. & O. boats being 14J knots.* 

* At the moment of writing, this question of speed has a 
special significance, seeing that among the many outstanding 
charges against the Imperial Government in connection with 
the conduct of the war in South Africa, its members will 
have to explain why, when every day was of the utmost im- 
portance to us, seeing that the Boers had crossed over into 
British territory witliin a day or two of the presentation of 
their presumptuous ultimatum, they were content to send out 
the troops in driblets in comparatively slow-going transports. 
The Campania and Lucania of the Cunard Line ; the Majestic 
^nd Teutonic of th^ White Star liine ; the Himalaya, Aus- 



268 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

The influence this enormous fleet of steamships 
has had upon the development of inter-imperial 
trade has been m.ost potent ; but it has had a greater 

tralia, Victoria and Arcadia of the P. & O. Line ; and the 
Empresses, of the Canadian Pacific Railway, are all under sub- 
vention, and their owners were bound to place them, if called 
upon to do so, at the disposal of the Government. The Cu- 
narders had a speed of more than 20 knots an hour ; the first 
two P. & O. boats 18, and the other two 16^, and the Empresses 
17. Instead of using such vessels exclusively, thereby saving 
a week or ten days, which would have made all the difference 
to our fortunes in South Africa, the War Office contented it- 
self with vessels of a very different calibre, good, bad and indif- 
ferent vessels, many bad in other respects besides as to their 
speed. And it may be said here that this is only one among a 
hundred instances which go to show that all those old sins of 
procrastination, indifferentism, trusting to chance and luck ; 
all those engrained errors of false economy and un prepared- 
ness which have cost us so dear in the past, still cling to us. 
The plea in this transport error is likely to be that the use of 
these subsidised steamers would have led to a dislocation 
of the trade of the country. This is an utterly untenable 
plea, as anyone who knows the habits of these vessels and 
their long detention in dock can attest. The real explanation 
has to be sought elsewhere. False ideas of economy and job- 
bery are responsible for these errors, combined with the self- 
sufficiency, carelessness, and sloth of persons in high author- 
ity. This is no random accusation. Our officers in South 
Africa have been minus military maps, no proper ordnance 
survey of the country having been accomplished. They are 
without trustworthy guides and scouts. Our soldiers have 
been badly fed on their outward journey. But the list of crim- 
inal oversights and ugly scandals is limitless. They go to 
prove that it is high time the junior partners of the Empire, 
the colonies, insisted upon having some control over its 
destinies. Our Intelligence Department has shown itself to 
be now, as it ever was, a caricature of what such a depart- 
nient should be— the laughing-stock of Europe. 



COMMUNICATION. 269 

influence even in drawing the inhabitants of the 
various portions of the Empire together. Canada 
is linked to the Motherland by half-a-dozen lines of 
fast steamers, conveying passengers and mails, and 
has also a direct service in connection with the 
Canadian Pacific Eailway with Australia. The 
Castle Line and Union Line link Great Britain with 
South Africa, and both fleets contain magnificent 
vessels. India and Australia are served by the 
world-renowned Peninsular & Oriental Company. 
The Koyal Mail Steam Packet Company dispatches 
steamers from Southampton to the West Indies, 
Central America and the ^N'orth and South Pacific. 
The West Indies are also served by the West India 
& Pacific Steamship Company. The British & 
African Steam [N'avigation Company conveys passen- 
gers and mails from Liverpool to the West Coast of 
Africa, where Great Britain possesses a number of 
Crown Colonies. 

Apart from the lines which directly connect the 
various colonies with the Mother Country, there are 
others, such as the Canadian- Australian line already 
mentioned, the Empress line and the 'New Zealand 
Shipping Company, which connect different colonies 
Ynth. each other. So far as tonnage and horse-power 
go, the steamers plying between Great Britain and 
America take precedence. Some of the Cunarders 
have a tonnage of 13,000 tons and their horse-power 
is 30,000. The highest tonnage of the P. & O. boats 
is 8,000, of the Castle Line upwards of 8,000, but 



270 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

larger vessels are about to be launched, and of the 
Union Line, 10,300 tons. To-day it is possible to 
cross the Atlantic in 5 days and 8 hours; the mail 
packets to Cape Town accomplish the journey in 
15 days. The P. & O. boats are under contract 
to deliver the mails in 16^ days to Bombay and 35| 
to Melbourne, though the fastest vessel in the service 
has landed the mails in Bombay within 12f days of 
their dispatch from London. It is obvious that these 
splendid services represent an enormous amount of 
capital; indeed it is stated that in 20 years, 7 mil- 
lions sterling have been expended on the P. & O. 
boats alone. 

It is not necessary to cast one's mind back to the 
beginning of the century, to get a full understanding 
of the enormous progress which has been made in 
steam communication by water; because that prog- 
ress has really been confined to the last fifty years or 
less. There are alive to-day many thousands of per- 
sons who have had actual experience of those mis- 
erable voyages to the Cape, India and Australia, in 
sailing vessels absolutely void of the manifold com- 
forts with which the ocean steamers of the present 
day are so liberally furnished. These took as 
many months and often many more months to ac- 
complish their respective journeys than under exist- 
ing conditions are accomplished in weeks. 

To deal with the growth of our shipping in an- 
other way, some figures of Mr. Mulhall may be given. 
He shows that the increase in carrying powder of our 



COMMUNICATION. 271 

mercantile marine between 1840 and 1895 is as fol- 
lows: For the first year, 2,848,000 tons; for 1895, 
27,350,000, and that, while in 1840, 108 tons were 
carried by 1,000 of the population, in 1895, the total 
was 701 tons. Again, the substitution of steam for 
sails has so far increased the efficiency of seamen, 
that whereas in 1840 one man had the control of 
200 tons, in 1895, 1,140 tons were in the charge of 
one seaman, or in other words, one seaman can do as 
much in carrying to-day as six could do in 1840. 
In 1892, Great Britain did more than half the carry- 
ing trade of the seas; including the Colonies it was 
60 per cent, of the whole. Sir William White 
(Chief Constructor of the ^avy), speaking a few 
months since, practically substantiated the figures 
given above, and further stated that British ship- 
building attained its highest production last year 
(1898). It must be obvious to every one that our 
shipping has now become the life and breath of the 
Empire; and that since its existence is dependent 
upon our navy, the continued efficiency of this ser- 
vice is absolutely essential to our national existence. 
I have dwelt upon the birth and development of 
steam communication by water, before referring to 
the equally marvellous results following upon the ap- 
plication of steam to locomotion on land, because 
steamers were of earlier date than railways; and 
again steamships have had a more direct bearing 
upon the development of the Empire, as a whole, 
than have railways. They have linked together its 



272 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

component parts; railways have aided the internal 
development of those parts. 

The development of railways has been directly 
under the eyes of the people, the nation as a whole; 
and not of a comparatively small section of it, and 
this is why the history of railway rise and progress, 
as narrated in print or told to us by our grandsires, 
possesses so many elements of romance and interest. 
There are many persons living to-day, including our 
revered Sovereign, who had arrived at an age when 
memory and reason had asserted themselves, before, 
to use the vernacular, " such a thing as a railway 
was known,'' for the tentative efforts and experi- 
ments of the early part of the century were not in 
the general knowledge. The Liverpool & Man- 
chester Railway was opened in 1830, when the 
Queen was in her twelfth year. When she came to 
the throne there were five short railways in the 
United Kingdom, which in all did not exceed in 
length 110 miles. The Liverpool & Manchester line 
was followed by the line from Leicester to Swanning- 
ton, but it was not until a movement was set on foot to 
connect London and Birmingham by a railway that 
the public was really aroused to interest itself, for 
or against, in railway enterprise. As a matter of 
fact, the opposition to this project was prolonged 
and strenuous. The passage through Parliament of 
the bill sanctioning it, cost its promoters £70,000, 
and it was only when the greedy landowners had 
been promised twice or thrice what was origin- 



COMMtTNICAtlON. 273 

ally considered a fair value for their land, that they 
withdrew their opposition to it. 

The line was opened in 1838. Then followed, or 
to be exact, railway building activity was already in 
the full tide of life before 1838, that marvellous 
^' boom '' in railways. Up to 1840 as many as 299 
acts authorising the construction of about 3,000 
miles of railway had passed into law; and before 
that time nearly all the great railway systems of the 
Kingdom had been sanctioned and were all in process 
of construction. Since Great Britain has now up- 
wards of 21,500 miles of railway open, it is obvious 
that what was done in these early years was in the 
nature of beginnings. Each succeeding year saw the 
sanction of thousands of miles, until the people went 
fairly mad over the matter. In 1846, Parliament 
sanctioned 4,790 miles; in 1847, 1,663 miles. In 
the former year, 1,300 fresh projects, or propositions 
to speak in the ugly argot of the company promoters, 
were brought out, and the public was asked to sub- 
scribe 600 millions sterling for the prosecution of 
these schemes. It dawned at last on the frenzied 
speculators that there was no room for half or for a 
quarter of these undertakings. In 1848 the crash 
came, bringing ruin to thousands and tens of thou- 
sands. 

Nevertheless, railways continued and flourished 

exceedingly. From time to time came suggestions of 

State purchase; but the capital involved in such a 

scheme was so gigantic, and the interests and rival- 
i8 



274 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ries so complicated, Parliament has always refused 
to face the matter. As to the progress of railways, 
space will not allow more to be done than to give a 
few figures to indicate what has been accomplished, 
and what is the position of railway companies of the 
United Kingdom to-day. The paid-up capital rep- 
resents about £1,100,000,000, equivalent at market 
prices to about half as much again. The receipts 
are something under 100 millions annually; in 1897 
they were £93,737,054, and in that year the working 
expenses were £53,083,804. In 1897 the number of 
passengers carried, exclusive of season ticket holders, 
was 1,030,420,201. As to accidents, the average as 
compared with the number of passengers is infini- 
tesimal, though the figures look large. It has been 
shown that the risks of railway travelling are far 
less than those of the streets. Yet when railways 
were first opened, the public regarded travelling by 
them as the most adventurous and fearsome proceed- 
ing, not to be undertaken until one had made one's 
will. Meanwhile, the comforts of travel have been 
vastly increased; for it is evident that in the early 
days of the enterprise, all save the first-class passen- 
ger had a most unhappy time. 

The building of railways has led to the building of 
towns where villages once were ; to the removal of the 
people from congested areas to districts which give 
them breathing space and vice versa; to the spread of 
knowledge through intercommunication between pro- 
vince and province, town and to^vn, village and vil- 



COMMUNICATION. 2t5 

lage ; to the diffusion of wealth, and to many another 
happy result. But, on the other hand, although I 
do not agree with John Ruskin that the railway is 
invariably a blot on the landscape, — on the contrary 
it is often a most pleasing feature — it is impossible 
to deny that where bricks and mortar have been 
used in its construction, it is commonly not only a 
defacement in itself, but the parent of defacement, 
for it has brought the advertiser in its train. In 
every case it has brought the jerry builder and many 
another abomination. 

It is much to be regretted, too, that the introduc- 
tion of railways stopped the development of canals 
— mischievously and precipitately. There is no 
more picturesque method of conveying goods than by 
water-ways, and where rivers are non-existent, canals 
form — Holland proves this conclusively — very pass- 
able substitutes. Moreover, for imperishable goods, 
where quickness of delivery was not imperative, 
canals formed a very convenient and inexpensive 
means of transit. So far as the South of England 
is concerned, the decay of local industries, especially 
iron smelting, helped to bring about the ruin of the 
canals. "Now, when these canals are choked with 
weeds and rubbish, filled in here and bridged over 
there, the weirs and locks in hopeless decay, it has 
dawned on many that the conclusion come to with 
the advent of railways, that their uses were over, was 
a hasty one. Even now the canals of the United 
Kingdom carry nearly double as much merchandise 



^76 t»ROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

as they carried when railways were in their infancy, 
though they do little to cheapen the price of transit, 
since most of them have fallen into the hands of the 
railway companies. 

Compared with other countries, Great Britain has 
more miles of railway than any other state in rela- 
tion to its area; but some other countries have a 
greater mileage in comparison with their popula- 
tion. It is not possible to give in detail the railway 
progress made by the colonies during the century; 
though obviously much might be written here with 
propriety on that subject, seeing that two of these 
railways, in any case, are of the utmost strategical 
importance. The one, the Canadian Pacific, 
actually, because it has long since been complete; 
and the other, the Rhodesian Railway, potentially 
rather than actually, since until it has been extended 
northwards and spanned the African continent, its 
value is local. Even when it has spanned the conti- 
nent, that awkward strip of German territory will 
render its use as an imperial highway indirect rather 
than direct. So far, however, as these colonial rail- 
w^ays are concerned, they play so important a part 
in the development of the respective colonies, they 
are sure to be treated at length in the volumes of this 
series devoted to those colonies. It would be im- 
possible to exaggerate the importance of the Cana- 
dian Pacific Railway, either as it touches the in- 
terests, the very life of Canada, or as it concerns 
imperial interests. 



COMMUNICATION. 277 

The railways of the Cape, of J^atal and Khodesia 
are, in scarcely less degree, the life blood of those 
colonies, and the like may be said of those of the re- 
publics now in rebellion. Now-a-days railways are, 
so to speak, the handmaids of war; in any case the 
present war has demonstrated conclusively how im- 
portant they are from a military point of view, and 
how their full control has the most immediate bear- 
ing upon the fortunes of the belligerents. 

As to Australia, which like South Africa is prac- 
tically devoid of navigable rivers, railways again 
bear a relation to national prosperity which it would 
be impossible to exaggerate. The settled districts of 
Australia are intersected by something like 12,000 
miles of railways. Since, however, it has now been 
ascertained beyond doubt that the central part of the 
whole continent is a hopeless waste, there is little 
or no prospect of Australia being intersected by a 
continuous line as Canada has been, and Africa is 
about to be. 

The railways of India, unlike those of all the 
colonies, instead of contributing handsomely to the 
respective revenue of those colonies, entail an annual 
loss to the Government of India amounting in 1897-8 
to a total of upwards of 57 millions since the com- 
mencement of the railway era in 1853. 

It remains to say that many projects are afoot 
for providing the various West African colonies 
with railways, and that in British East Africa the 
line from the coast to Uganda is advancing sati§- 



278 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

f actorilj, and may be expected to be complete some- 
where about the opening of the new century. 

Although perhaps it would be scarcely fair or cor- 
rect to say that the effective postal arrangements, 
which have been the pride and joy of this country 
during nearly the whole of Her Majesty's reign, 
must be regarded as a direct outcome of railways, 
since, in 1837, when Rowland Hill startled the Gov- 
ernment with his suggestion for a uniform penny 
post, railways were in their infancy — the London 
& Birmingham line was not opened until the next 
year — still it was doubtless because men of large 
mind, capable of appreciating future developments, 
had determined that railways were coming, that they 
gave support to a scheme which Sir Robert Peel and 
his Government looked upon as an idle, not to say 
mischievous, dream. In any case, Rowland HilFs 
scheme must have remained a dream had not the ex- 
tension of railways preceded its realisation, or to be 
quite correct, developed concurrently with it — on 
parallel lines one may say. 

The history of the growth of the inland post is 
full of fascination. The penny post has doubtless 
exercised a most powerful influence over the for- 
tunes of the people; and in the main that influence 
has been for good. Under the old system, the average 
correspondence of each person living in the United 
Kingdom fell below 4 letters annually. In 1875 it 
had reached 33, and in that year over 1,000 mil- 
lions of letters and post cards were sent through the 



COMMUNICATION. 279 

post. Since then even, the progress has been noth- 
ing less than amazing. 'No doubt the compulsory 
education of the people is answerable for the fact 
that the number of persons able and willing to write, 
has increased vastly since that date. In 1885 the 
average had reached 55, though papers are included 
in this number, and in 1895, also including papers, 
to 73. 

Again, in 1839, the number of letters passing 
through the post annually, was estimated at 82 mil- 
lions. The number for 1897-8 was 2,372,700,000, 
including post cards. If book packets, circulars, 
samples, newspapers and parcels are added to letters 
and post cards, we get a total of 3,318,723,000, or 
an average number for each person of 83.1. Out 
of this business the country made a profit of close on 
4 millions sterling, but a loss of £309,538 was in- 
curred in the telegraph department. As in the case 
of the railways this enormous business means the em- 
ployment of a great many hands. The staff of the 
Post Office stood at 150,110 in 1897-8. 

It is not of course only in the carriage of letters 
that the Post Office has made such wonderful strides. 
It has also the telegraphic business of the country 
under its control. In 1872, 15^ million messages 
were sent, in the ratio of 50 per 100 inhabitants; 
in 1895, 71,600,000, the ratio being 180 per 100 in- 
habitants. In 1897-8, including press and foreign 
telegrams:, the total was 83,029,999. 

Telephones are not at present entirely the 



289 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

monopoly of the Post Office; but during 1897-8, 
5; 8 9 8,247 conversations were carried on through the 
trunk wires attached to the Government system. 

Keference has not been made to the institution of 
an Imperial Penny Post in its more obvious place, 
because it was more convenient to deal with the 
growth of inland postal and telegraphic communica- 
tion, as affecting the metropolis of the Empire, before 
referring to that large growth which has included the 
whole Empire. Until the institution of the Imperial 
Penny Post, the charge for letters not exceeding 
half an ounce had already been reduced to a uniform 
rate, which was, roughly speaking, 2^d. to all parts 
of the world. 'NoWy with the exception of one or 
two, for the most part small colonies, the charge 
is reduced to a penny. This charge was arranged at 
the Imperial Conference on Postage held in July, 
1898, and most of the colonies adhered to the scheme 
so as to enable the Government to introduce it on 
Christnias day, 1898, the Cape coming in later in 
the year, or early in 1899. 

I had intended to give here a brief history of the 
determined fight this measure had to make before it 
secured acceptance, but my .space is running out, and 
I must put a curb on my pen. Suffice it to say that 
although the idea did not actually originate with 
Mr. Henniker Heaton — the member for Canter- 
bury, a politician who spent much of his earlier life 
in Australia — ^the triumph of the scheme must be as- 
cribed almost entirely to his persistent and inde- 



COMMUNICATION. 281 

fatigable efforts. From 1886 to 1898, in and out of 
Parliament, in and ont of season, Mr. Ileaton never 
let the subject rest. He was opposed hj the " Man- 
darins of the Post Office," by the Treasury, and, un- 
kindest cut of all, by the colonies themselves. But 
he never wearied, until, as we have seen^ in 1898, the 
Postmaster-General (the Duke of ITorfolk) and Mr. 
Chamberlain, with Mr. Mulock, the Canadian Post- 
master-General, entered the field as supporters of the 
measure, with the result that Mr. Heaton's efforts 
were finally crowned with success. It is a peculiar 
irony of fate, that Australia, which may be regarded 
as Mr. Heaton's foster mother, for sometime signal- 
ised herself by standing out of the scheme. 

The story of the early struggles of the submarine 
telegraphists reads like the story of the early strug- 
gles of the promoters of the penny post, the im])erial 
penny post and railways, and should in conjunction 
with these stories have a tonic effect at the moment 
at which I happen to be writing. No Englishman 
can read these stories without being consciously 
proud of the achievements of his immediate ances- 
tors and contemporaries; and as he reads he feels 
braced up for the extremely arduous and strenuous 
work lying immediately before him, in a matter, 
too, which like the foregoing is mainly one of organ- 
isation. But that is a political and military story I 
must deal with elsewhere. 

Obviously, however, these submarine cables have a 
political interest which transcends their merely com- 



282 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

mercial importance. From a trade point of view, tKe 
tardily successful laying of the cable between Eng- 
land and America was all important, but from a 
political point of view it was far more so. The 
mere expansion of trade taken alone does not neces- 
«arily make a people great. We were all coming to 
think so, and it is well that we are being rudely 
awakened from our vicious self-complacency. 

The first attempt to lay a submarine cable be^ 
tween England and America was made in 1857. It 
failed. The next year the cable was successfully 
laid; but it snapped, and it was not until 1865 that 
complete success rewarded the efforts of the tele- 
graphic engineers. Since then (indeed, some of the 
shorter cables were laid earlier) the various parts of 
the earth have been conjoined by telegraphic cables, 
the course taken following the lines of the great 
trade routes. And, as I have said, the political and 
strategical importance of these submarine cables can- 
not be exaggerated. Their existence has averted 
war, and it has precipitated war. So far as the 
British Empire be concerned, cables have done much 
to keep it together; but as Mr. Henniker Heaton 
has so often remarked, they might have done much 
more had the absurd charges which monopoly has 
been permitted to extract from the public, been 
brought more into accord with common sense and 
common requirements. That the successive gov- 
ernments which have had the control of the nation's 
affairs have bungled the telegraphic service of the 



COMMUNICATION. 283 

Empire is not surprising; since our system of gov- 
ernment is so astoundingly wrong-headed, we put 
men who have no kind of knowledge of the business 
they undertake into the various offices of state. Thus 
we have at the War Office, and have always had, 
men who are dunces in the art of warj at the Ad- 
miralty, gentlemen whose time has been given to 
building up big newspaper-selling concerns, and at 
the Post Office, noblemen and gentlemen absolutely 
ignorant of the requirements of the trading commu- 
nity. The eifect of having persons at the Colonial 
Office who have disdained to try even to acquire a 
knowledge of the geography of the countries they 
were called upon (in an imperial sense) to rule, 
has been most disastrous in the past. In look- 
ing down the list of Colonial Secretaries of 
the century, it is impossible to find more than 
three or four at the most, until we read the 
name of Joseph Chamberlain, who have not been 
ashamed of their business. Many of them were 
frankly incompetent, w^hile others, such as Bulwer- 
Lytton and Lord Granville, can only be regarded, 
when one considers them as the custodians of a 
mighty Empire, as the merest triflers and farceurs, 
treating their office with a levity which would per- 
mit them to let matters of state wait should the re- 
lating of an anecdote or the delivery of a hon mot 
stand in the way. The Empire has been brought on 
to the breakers again and again during the century 
by men who lacked the smallest measure of proleptic 



284: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

imagination, and wlio also lacked knowledge of tlie 
countries confided to their keeping, and the desire or 
capacity to gain that knowledge. To-day it is clear 
that almost the only public office which can be con- 
sidered so far to have proved itself possessed of any- 
thing approaching efiiciency, is the Colonial Ofiice. 
Even that ofiice leaves much to be desired, for the 
neglect and vicious traditions of years cannot be 
made good in a less number of months. 

It must be singularly galling to the head of that 
ofiice to find, as he has found, that those limbs of the 
public service with which he counted upon to work 
in unison, have become atrophied or paralysed. 
That the War Ofiice could not supply the ofiicers 
taking the field with ordnance maps, because the 
country in which they had to operate had never been 
properly surveyed: that the army lacked the most 
modern and effective weapons, with a score or more 
discoveries which have during the last few months 
become matters of common knowledge. Englishmen 
had fondly hoped that the normal state of our army 
throughout the wars of the seventeenth, eighteenth 
and nineteenth centuries, down to the war in the 
Crimea, had given place to the most perfect arrange- 
ments in peace for the organisation of our forces in 
war. They have been rudely awakened from this 
dream. 

And in nothing has our easy-going laxity been 
more painfully apparent, than in our neglect to pro- 
vide the Empire with an effective telegraphic service. 



COMMUNICATION. 285 

Sir Edward Sassoon, speaking at the Liverpool 
Chamber of Commerce late in 189 9, disclosed, to use 
the words of the Morning Post, " an astounding de- 
gree of incompetence in the public administration 
of a great Imperial interest." Incompetence is 
only a part of the indictment, but stronger terms 
may be dispensed with, since the facts speak for 
themselves. The cables to Asia and Africa are in the 
hands of three subsidised companies, the Eastern 
Telegraph, the Eastern Extension and the Indo- 
European Telegraphic Companies. They pay their 
shareholders a high interest, from 6^ to 10 per cent., 
and they mulct the public in ridiculous charges for 
doing its business. Thus a telegram can be sent to 
Persia, over wires not in the hands of these com- 
panies, at the rate of 6|d. a word, while the charge 
to India is 4s. a word. This instance must suffice. 
I am aware that the companies have a reasonable 
defence; the Eastern Telegraph Company has re- 
cently made a good one. But I am not attacking the 
companies; I am lamenting the lapses of the Im- 
perial Government. If space allowed, I should go 
into this matter more fully, but I must say that I 
cannot but agree with Sir Edward Sassoon's con- 
tention that the Government of this country, from 
the earliest days of submarine telegraphy, has " dis- 
played a magnificent want of skill and knowledge 
in dealing with telegraph companies." The haggling 
and delay which have prevented South Africa from 
enjoying a single all-British cable communication 



286 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

to the Cape is a scandal which finds its counterpart 
in the history of the project for linking Canada with 
the Australasian colonies. In May, 1899, it was 
announced that at last a working arrangement had 
been come to whereby the Pacific cable, which had 
been mooted for the last ten or eleven years, should 
become an accomplished fact. There can be no ques- 
tion that the terms offered by the Imperial Govern- 
ment were extremely niggardly, and pressed unfairly 
on the Canadian Dominion and the Australasian 
colonies. They have now been modified. But 
while ministers hum and haw and allow themselve^^ 
to be made the instruments, unwittingly no doubt, 
of those powerful persons who have vested interests 
at stake, a situation may suddenly arise and bring 
disaster in its train, a situation which might have 
been met and combated successfully had our rulers 
taken time by the forelock and prepared for evil days 
ahead. 



;fl^f^ 




THE RIGHT HUN. W. H- FORSTF.R. 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 287 



CHAPTEK XII. 

SOCIAL PROGRESS. 

While deeply conscious of the many imperfec- 
tions of this attempt of mine to give something like 
an accurate picture of the progress of the Empire 
in the century; I hope I have at least avoided the 
sin of vain-gloriousness. Perhaps in no branch of 
the subject is it so difficult to escape this fault as 
in writing of the general advance, social, intellectual 
and material, of the British people, for on the face 
of it in any case this advance has been so remarkable 
as to justify a certain measure of national jactita- 
tion. Obviously, it is not necessary to deal 
with this advance in detail; since the religious, po- 
litical, literary, artistic, scientific, educational and 
industrial progress of the British peoples will be 
dealt with in the volumes of this series treating re- 
spectively these aspects of progress as affecting the 
whole world. But it is scarcely possible to escape 
passing in rapid survey the general growth in mind 
and body — ^we have already dealt sufficiently with 
estate — of the nation during the century. 

Beginning with education. There are to-day 
few persons so ill-educated as not to know that at the 
opening of the century the great mass of the people 



288 PROGRESS OF MiTiSS EMPIRE. 

was entirely without education. So late even as the 
date of the Queen's accession to the throne, 44 per 
cent, of the people were unable to sign their names. 
This proportion now, and it is rapidly growdng less 
and less, is about 6 or 7 per cent. In the early part 
of the century, the Sunday schools were about the 
only medium of instruction for the poor. These 
were supplemented some years before George III. 
w^as gathered to his fathers, by the I^ational Society's 
schools, promoted by the Church of England, and 
by the schools of the British and Foreign School 
Society, in w^hose schools the Bible was taught, but 
the Catechism was excluded. State aid to these 
schools began in 1803 with an annual grant of £20,- 
000. TJianks to the untiring efforts of Sir James 
Shuttlew^orth, this aid was increased, until in 18 G 5 
the grant reached nearly half a million sterling. 
Twenty years later Mr. Forster introduced his Com- 
pulsory Education Act, which provided for the edu- 
cation of 1,100,000 children. At the present time 
most of the colonies have Government schools. Those 
of Cape Colony — though the Superintendent-Gen- 
eral of Education, Dr. Muir, has achieved marvels 
in the way of improving the status of teachers and 
raising the curriculum — being perhaps the least ad- 
vanced, Dutch opposition has to be reckoned wdth; 
while probably those of l^ew Zealand are the most 
advanced. The Cape, how^ever, has made a decided 
move forward in the direction of technical education, 
a branch of instruction for which very much still re- 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 289 

mains to be done in tlie United Kingdom. England 
lags behind, too, in secondary schools, for although 
the npjDer classes of the premier Kingdom are pro- 
vided with splendid schools — Eton, Winchester, 
Rugby, Harrow — the northern Kingdom has a far 
more effective educational system for the middle 
classes, as have Germany, Holland, Belgium and 
even the United States. 

If one were asked what is the great defect of the 
English compulsory educational system, the answer 
should be that it is to be found in the hard and 
fast curriculum which, however much it may suit 
urban districts, is totally unsuited to the needs of the 
rural population. It is certainly extremely hard on 
the farmers and landowners, who are the ratepayers 
in agricultural England, that they should have to 
pay for a system of education the main effect of 
which is to drive the up-growing youth out of the 
country into the towns. There are born in the prov- 
inces, every year, 80,000 persons who find their 
way into the towns. This is only partly because they 
cannot find employment at home^ as defenders of our 
precious economic laws assert; nor is it wholly be- 
cause those economic laws have rendered farming 
so unprofitable that at present we do not produce 
enough wheat to feed the people for 2^ months in- 
stead of sufiicient to feed them for 11 months — the 
case in 183 Y. Neither is it due to the fact (the cause 
of which may be an ineptitude in the people, the 
land laws, the economic laws or all) that small hold- 
19 



290 PEOQRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ings are anything but general in this country. Edu- 
cation, although not the root of the evil, is a potent 
contributory to it. And the evil itself is not merely 
a farmer's evil. The evil, as I have already la- 
boured to tihow, is a national one. It is robbing the 
land, here and in the colonies, of its natural culti- 
vators. 

In this matter I am greatly struck v^ith the argu- 
ments of Mr. P. Anderson Graham, who, v^^riting in 
the Morning Post, urges that elementary education 
in the rural districts should have not only a direct 
bearing on the subsequent v/ork of the rustic pupil, 
but that his studies should be conducted, as far as 
possible, out of doors, with a minimum of book work. 
I can vouch from my own personal knowledge that 
the existing system merely results in cramming into 
the heads of scholars, useless, ill-digested knowledge, 
rarely retained. Country children are no longer 
able to tell an enquirer the popular names of 
the birds, flowers, beasts and insects, the .common 
objects of the country side. The eyes of children, 
both in country and town^ should be trained to see, 
and the hands to work, and their imaginations 
should be cultivated. 

Again, it is nothing short of barbarity that chil- 
dren should be compelled to sit long hours in school, 
their ill-fed bodies clothed in damp garments. Their 
parents are robbed of their services in the cottage or 
in the fields, services which directly or indirectly 
contribute, however little, to the maintenance of the 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 29l 

family; and it must be remembered that many 
families among the rural poor have to be supported 
on twelve shillings a week and number a round 
dozen. Small wonder that many parents are quite 
unable to feed their children ; the fresh air and the 
fumes of upturned soil do that. Still the physical 
hurt done to these young lives from insufficient nu- 
trition is enormous, and would not be compensated 
for were they made paragons of learning. If the 
State arbitrarily educates the child, surely the State, 
where it is shown to be necessary, should feed the 
child during the time that child has been compul- 
sorily taken from its parents. If under conscription 
the State takes a grown man to serve his country as 
a soldier, the State feeds that man. The child is 
educated so that he may become a better citizen, a 
better wage-earner, and therefore better taxpayer. 
It seems to be common justice and common sense 
that where it can be shown the parent cannot feed 
his child — we are not dealing with those parents 
who can but won't, for they could be compelled to 
do so — the State should step in. 

But the subject is too large to deal with here. I 
have dealt with it often enough elsewhere, and 
claim to speak with some slight authority, having 
i^at on a rural School Board for some years. Ea- 
tional education has a warm friend in me, but the 
present system of State education is so faulty its de- 
fects go far to nullify its benefits. It has of course 
raised the general intelligence of the community, 



292 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

but it has destroyed individuality, so much so that 
whereas in all other ages of the nation's history 
men of the first rank, rising from the masses, were 
by no means phenomenal; now they are among the 
rarities of rarities. 

Again, faulty as the system is for the country, it 
is scarcely less faulty for the towns. Children should 
be taught to do something useful with their hands 
while they are at school — and this applies to educa- 
tion generally. Technical education is little better 
than a farce, both for boys and girls. Moreover, 
although a child must of course be taught the three 
R's, equal pains should be taken to give him a real 
grip of the history, geography and resources of the 
Empire. 

On the other hand, higher education, the educa- 
tion of the Universities, has undergone marvellous 
improvement during the century. Oxford and Cam- 
bridge were in a condition which the epithet scandal- 
ous inadequately describes, in the eighteenth century. 
As educational agencies they scarcely existed. 
Throwing open the fellowships to general competition 
was a salutary measure, and the Commissions, from 
T-ord John Russell's (in 1850) downwards, have grad- 
ually purged the Universities of the manifold abuses 
which disgraced them, and to-day they are once again 
worthy of their great past and their great traditions. 
Other leading bodies have arisen, such as the London 
University, King's College, London, and Owen^s 
College, Manchester, while every colony has pro- 
vided itself with agencies for higher education. , 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 393 

That higher education has advanced is not con- 
tested. On the other hand, it is too hastily assumed 
that education has done everything for the people. 
Sir James Shuttleworth's picture of the helots, as he 
called them, of the South of England at the be- 
ginning of the century, painted both children and 
parents as creatures little removed from imbecility; 
and certainly if this picture be accepted there has 
been great improvement, though it would appear 
that the peasantry of East !N^orfolk and of many 
parts of Suffolk are very little better, if at all better, 
than the South Saxons of 1800. 

Manners are said to have improved, and possibly 
there is less drunkenness and evil-speaking among 
the upper classes, as there is perhaps among the 
lower; but this gain is balanced by an increased 
laxity in the ranks of the middle classes, and among 
the women of every class. The loss of respect among 
the people for their social superiors may be pardoned 
where that respect was not earned by personal quali- 
ties. Unfortunately the new democracy is in- 
clined to respect nothing and nobody; personal 
qualities least of all: if it retains respect for any- 
body it is for the man with the long purse. 

The regrettable increase in the number of divorces 
among the upper classes, which now total annually 
about 450 in Great Britain — in Ireland it is 4 or 6, 
a fact which speaks trumpet-mouthed for the mar- 
ital constancy of the Irish people — is balanced by 
the decrease in the total of illegitimate births among 



294: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the lower classes, and by the marked diminution in 
the nnmber of convictions for crime, and this is so 
even if we remember the fact that in the earlier part 
of the century punishments were inflicted for trivial 
offences. 

The statistics of crime, however, again go to 
prove that the middle classes lag behind. While the 
public conscience has been shocked at the number 
of peers who have sullied their names by associating 
themselves with bubble companies, it is recognised 
that the new-born zeal for commerce which has taken 
possession of the upper classes as the result of their 
practical ruin as landowners, and the inexperience 
of these classes in the ways of business, in some mea- 
sure condone their faults ; while it is at least per- 
missible to congratulate ourselves that if influence 
as the road to preferment is by no means dead in 
the public services, corruption is rare ; one may hope 
it is practically unknown. On the other hand com- 
mercial morality has, it is to be feared, steadily de- 
clined ; the lust of riches having eaten into the heart 
of the middle classes. Also it is only too true that 
the crimes of embezzlement and betrayal of trust on 
the part of managers, secretaries, trustees and clerks, 
men in positions of responsibility, have shown a 
decided tendency to increase throughout the Empire. 

Every lover of freedom must rejoice at the advance 
the century has seen in the direction of the political 
emancipation of the people, since those days early 
in the century when Burdett barricaded himself in 
his home in Piccadilly and defied the mandate of a 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 295 

tyrannical parliament, and Hone fought his splendid 
battle on behalf of freedom and got the better 
of the reactionary Lord Ellen borough. When the 
century opened, no larger number than fifty persons 
could meet together for a public purpose without 
first obtaining magisterial sanction. Elections were 
carried by bribery, naked and unashamed. Papist, 
Jew and Quaker had no political and few civil rights ; 
while society ostracised them. All these injustices 
and many another have ceased to disgrace our civili- 
sation. 

It cannot be denied, however, that the pendulum 
has swung dangerously far in the other direction. 
Liberty has tended to degenerate into licence, and 
freedom into political indifference. Lord Salisbury 
has recently complained that the British Constitu- 
tion lacks in fighting qualities. The Premier was 
not particularly referring to the divided authority 
everywhere, in cabinet, parliament or country, which 
makes it impossible for any one man, however strong, 
to act or rule on his own initiative ; but it is certain 
that the extension of the franchise and the delega- 
tion of power to a mass of persons, who have 
proved themselves up to now quite incapable of 
grasping imperial issues, have involved the Empire, 
again and again, in great risks. The system par- 
alyses action, because strong men in power know 
that a wave of popular sentimentality may at any 
time arise and sweep them and their plans into 
Limbo. This, however, is one aspect of a larger 
subject, the curse of our system of government by 



296 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

party, repeated unhappily in the colonies, which re- 
sults in the subordination of national issues to minor 
local ones. Space will not permit more to be said 
on this colossal evil. There is only 6ne cure for it 
— decentralisation as to local affairs, and the erec- 
tion of a real instead of a nominal imperial parliament 
by taking the self-governing colonies into partner- 
ship. 

To return to the more purely domestic aspect of 
this policy of the devolution of power to the democ- 
racy by extending the freedom of action of the 
labouring classes. It cannot be said that it has 
added to the individual freedom of those classes, 
since the growth of trades-unionism, beginning as it 
did in combinations enabling the workers to resist 
the oppression of selfish employers and capital- 
ists, and in extending the advantages of benefit 
societies, has ended by reducing the workers to 
automatic machines, which at the will of small 
governing bodies are made to wage war on the em- 
ployers of labour. The granting of wages beyond 
their market value from the European standpoint, 
and the long periods of idleness — the competitive 
foreigners' opportunity — which strikes entail, have 
sent trade from the British Isles to Belgium, Ger- 
many and America, much of which will never return. 

While, then, it is by no means certain that the ex- 
tension of the franchise, by lowering it to a level 
which practically means manhood suffrage, has been 
productive of good outbalancing evil, and this largely 
because that the education of the people so called 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 297 

is not in any real sense an educational or training 
force or agency, it is impossible to be confident that 
the marvellous development of the press and of 
cheap literature is an unmixed blessing. Human 
nature is so constituted that it does not value 
what it obtains cheaply ; while the multiplication of 
books and journals, produced for the rapid consump- 
tion of the average intelligence, must tend to keep 
that intelligence on a loAvly plane. In saying this, 
the whole nation is referred to and not any par- 
ticular section of it. Our ancestors read less, but 
on the whole their literary food was of a far more 
solid and enduring character than ours. The scar- 
city of books, and the comparative rarity of journals, 
induced readers to make themselves masters of what 
they read with the result that they really absorbed 
nourishing mental food. "Now the food offered is of 
a comparatively poor quality ; and is looked upon 
by ninety -nine readers as a " nip " rather than solid 
food. Indeed " snippets " are more read than any- 
thing else. The classics are neglected for books of 
the most trivial nature ; and works of real imagina- 
tive power, the great poets and romancers, for the 
newest novels, for the' most part trash of a brain- 
rotting kind. The froth of literature bubbles mer- 
rily in the circulating libraries, w^hile the readers of 
history, biography and philosophy are, in proportion 
to the population, a vanishing minority. The re- 
turns of all our libraries bear out the truth of this 
assertion ; while as showing how reluctant the 
people are to address themselves to informing liter- 



298 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ature, Mr. FitzPatrick's book on the Transvaal, 
though recognised universally as giving the most 
complete and trustworthy account of a matter of 
supreme public interest and moment, has been 
quoted as a phenomenal success because its circula- 
tion ran into a score or so thousands. 

As to the craze for light fiction and for tit-bit 
and illustrated journalism, which has affected the 
people, it has exercised a most deteriorating influence 
on the mental fibre of the present generation, and 
has, perhaps, done more than any other disintegrating 
force to take men and women, and especially women, 
from the serious business of life. It accounts for more 
neglected domestic duties and unhappy homes than 
any other single cause. So far as men go, the effect 
has been negative rather than actual, since the re- 
jection of the master-pieces for the penny pieces of 
literature has turned them away from the study of 
the larger things of life, accounting in no small 
measure for the extraordinary dearth at this moment 
of men of light and leading in every department 
of human affairs. 

How different it was at the beginning of the cen- 
tury 1 There were fewer readers of course, but men 
who read in any case (excluding of course the mere 
trifiers of society, who possibly read the trashy 
fiction and poetry in fashion at the moment as the 
women of that class certainly did) read literature — 
abiding work. A little later when war had quick- 
ened men's pulses, as the material suffering entailed 
had stimulated their spiritual and intellectual life. 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 299 

giants arose. In poetry — Wordsworth, Coleridge, 
Shelle}^, Keats, Landor, Burns and Byron with their 
aftermath, Tennyson, Browning, William Morris 
and Eossetti. In fiction — Scott, Thackeray, Dick- 
ens, Kingsley, Jane Austen, Charlotte Bronte, 
long and glorious company ending in Hardy, Mer-^ 
edith and Stevenson. Obviously no classification is 
intended; nothing in the shape of literary criticism. 
These names are merely given as the names of giants 
who influenced their day and generation. They 
have few successors to-day. It is true we have 
struggled out of the slough of that school of literary 
triflers to whom the turn of a phrase was everything, 
the substance nothing. The robust romance of 
Rider Haggard, infused as it is with the primitive- 
ness of Zulu life and thought ; the elevating im- 
perialism of Kipling have dissipated the vapours of 
this unhealthy and emasculated school. 

Writers have multiplied, but the number of great 
writers, has by no means increased. Macaulay, 
Carlyle, Froude, Grote, J. R. Green, Freeman, 
can scarcely be said to have left successors; nor 
is it possible to point to the contemporary equals of 
Matthew Arnold in literary criticism, and John 
Ruskin in art criticism. As to colonial literature 
— creative literature, that is to say — with a few 
notable exceptions, it cannot be said to exist, nor is 
there any need, as a critic remarked the other day, 
in speaking particularly of Australasia, for these 
young lands, "their life still in the heyday of effort, 
to hurry up in the making of literature." 



300 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

The Yictorian age, both in pure and in applied 
science, has produced a splendid crop of writers. 
Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall have left Herbert Spencer 
and Lord Kelvin to represent them. For the rest, 
in comparing the end of the century with its begin- 
ning and its maturity, we must remember that this 
has been an age of remarkable intellectual growth, 
and that one must expect some signs of exhaustion 
after a sustained period of lavish fruition. The 
position is advanced that whereas, in the early 
part of the century the classics and good literature 
were almost exclusively read by the readers of the 
community, and that in the second and third quar- 
ters magnificent work was produced and absorbed 
by the people, the last quarter of the century, until 
the renaissance of which we see signs to-day, has 
fed itself on husks, while literary circles have ac- 
cepted as their models the high-priests oi persiflage^ 
paradox and pruriency. 

As to the marvellous " growth '* of journalism, one 
need not be supposed to be insensible to it, or to 
deny that on the whole it has exercised a beneficial 
influence upon the people. Still it is permissible to 
point out that that influence has not been entirely 
for good, in that it has encouraged a superficial habit 
of reading and thinking in all classes of the people, 
who now being able to acquire knowledge so read- 
ily, are too idle to go to the first sources of inform- 
ation. On the other hand the multiplication of 
cheap newspapers and journals has given the poor 
an available and, for the most part, pure and health- 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 301 

ful source of instruction and recreation, and has 
unquestionably added to the pleasures of life, and 
done something to mitigate its sorrows and disap- 
pointments. 

At the beginning of the century the price of news- 
papers was prohibitive for the working classes, and 
indeed for the mass of the middle classes. There 
was a duty on paper ; a stamp duty on all journals ; 
and on all advertisements a 3s. 6d. duty. Thus one 
of the '^ Old Guard " (see Chapter X.) tells us that 
in Sussex, a newspaper cost 2s. 7d. in or about 1815. 

In 1829, 308 newspapers were published in the 
United Kingdom, of which 55 were issued in London, 
37 in Scotland, and 59 in Ireland. There were 13 
dailies with a joint circulation of 40,000 copies. 
They boasted 900 advertisements between them. 
The highest rate of production from the printing 
press was 2,800 copies an hour. In 1836 the stamp 
duty was reduced from 4:d. to Id., and the duty on 
advertisements from 3s. 6d. to Is. 6d. This duty 
was abolished altogether in 1853, the stamp duty in 
1855, and the paper duty in 1861. In 1839 London 
published 91 papers, 256 issued from the provinces, 
59 from. Scotland and 70 from Ireland. In that 
year the Times had a circulation of 1,090,000 copies 
during April, May and June, the Chronicle coming 
next with 530,000 copies. In 1875, 325 papers were 
published in London, 1,300 in the provinces, 149 in 
Scotland and 137 in Ireland. In 1887 the total for 
the British Isles was 2,135, in 1898 it was 2,418, and 
the numbers have continued to increase. And, as 



302 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Dr. Kichard Garnett remarks, to describe the pro- 
digious improvements in press machinery would 
require a volume. 

The gross annual income of the newspapers of the 
United Kingdom was stated a few years since to be 
16 millions sterling, and in 1896 the monthly issue 
amounted to 174 millions, or a little short of 7 mil- 
lions daily. It was not until 1841 that any daily 
paper was published in England outside London ; 
and the first penny paper, the Daily JVews, was is- 
sued in 1846. JS'ow we have in London alone half 
a dozen penny daily papers. In 1800 nearly all the 
news in the Times was a week old. JS'ow, thanks 
to telegraphy and special correspondence, the press 
of the United Kingdom informs its readers of every 
important event transpiring at the uttermost parts 
of the earth, as soon as the dwellers in those places 
are themselves acquainted therewith. 

Over and above this marvellous growth of the 
daily and weekly press, the century has practically 
seen the creation of illustrated journalism and of 
monthly reviews. Early in the century a few 
broadsheets stood for illustrated journalism ; but 
since the foundation of the Illusirated London News 
in 1842 a whole mass of pictured papers has arisen. 
In recent years illustrated monthly magazines have 
entered the field ; but in this department of journal- 
istic enterprise the United States reigns supreme, 
for in typography, letter-press and illustrations, 
Harper's, Scribner's and the Cosmopolitan are un- 
rivalled. Meanwhile the Edinburgh^ Westminster 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 303 

and Quarterly have been followed by a score or so 
imitators. The Nineteenth Century^ Contemporary, 
FortnigMly , and so forth ; while the Athenceicm, 
Saturday and Spectator in solid weeklies, and 
KnigMs Penny Journal, Chambers' s Journal, Once 
a Week, in lighter weeklies, have scores of journal- 
istic descendants. 

With the exception claimed for America (illus- 
trated monthly reviews) the press of the United 
Kingdom is immeasurably in advance of that of the 
whole world. Compared with it the press of France, 
Germany and Austria is, in matter and in form and 
in the value to be attached to its utterances, abso- 
lutely insignificant. On the other hand, it is re- 
markable that the daily journals of the colonies are 
very nearl}^ equal to those of the United Kingdom, 
by which I mean of course as far as they go. Ob- 
viously they are far smaller and far less compre- 
hensive. But I have had a personal acquaintance 
with the press of Australasia and Canada for many 
years, and with that of South Africa from my boy- 
hood. I have often maintained, and I am prepared 
to do so again, that the leading articles in such 
journals as the Cape Times, Cape Argus and Natal 
Mercury are equal in scholarship, tone and literary 
form to those of any London paper, and well they 
may be when such men as Edmund Garrett and Sir 
John Robinson are responsible for them. I do not dis- 
parage other colonies ; but the press of South Africa 
leads, probably because South Africa has been for 
some years the most immediately interesting and 
progressive portion of the British Empire. 



304 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Fortunately for me, the volume devoted to Fine 
Arts in the century has been entrusted to my friend 
Mr. William Sharp. Few writers better able to deal 
with the subject could be found. Were this not so, 
the theme would naturally tempt my pen ; since it 
has engaged it largely since I first took it up as a 
public writer. I may say briefly that I do not 
think it can be maintained that there has been any 
large or uniform measure of art progress during 
the century, or that the people, as a whole, have be^ 
come more appreciative of the beautiful. This fact 
is to be attributed in the main to the deadly in- 
fluence of an institution, which, while posing as a 
national one, has devoted the prestige and position 
derivable from its royal foundation, government 
grants, accumulated wealth, and social advantages 
to aggrandising itself and its members ; and has 
persistently neglected all outside and independent 
talent, not to say cruelly persecuted all and sundry 
who dared to follow a convention not approved by 
its President and Council, or who refused to bow 
the knee to its august majesty. So it has come to 
pass that almost everything that is vital and endur- 
ing in English art during the century, has come into 
existence independently of the fostering aid of the 
Academy, or actually in defiance of it. So far as 
the Academicians of the century go, the list contains 
a mass of names for the most part inglorious and 
destined to oblivion — many are already travelling 
there. Had the Academy really led the art develop- 
ment of the country, it would not have happened that 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 305 

every great vitalising art movement has had its 
genesis outside it. The pre-Eaphaelite movement, 
the Plein-air or Newlyn School, the ISTew English 
Art Club or romanticist school, the Arts and Crafts 
Society. Among its great refuses some of the first 
painters of the century are to be numbered. Lat- 
terly, it is true, it has shown the wisdom of the 
serpent, and has ended, when finally convinced that 
they could not be suppressed, in enticing into its 
fold the men it has previously snubbed throughout 
a quarter of a century. 

I have told the history of all this elsewhere, told 
it again and again. Mr. W. J. Laidlay, in his con- 
vincing book, " The Eoyal Academy : Its Uses and 
Abuses," has recently presented the case against 
the Academy in an unanswerable manner; since, be- 
ing a trained barrister as well as an accomplished 
painter, he has not allowed passion or overstate- 
ment to vitiate the inherent strength of his case. 

The art of the century in Great Britain has really 
been the art of one or two so-called schools : the 
ISTorwich, ITottingham, Newlyn, New English and 
Wealden schools in landscape art, or, to distinguish 
them otherwise, the romanticist, impressionist and 
naturalistic schools ; and the pre-Kaphaelite school, 
and romantic and imaginative school in figure- 
painting. To put it in another way, the art of 
England has been the art of a score or so of men, 
Turner, Constable, Millais, Eossetti, Watts, Lawson, 
Mark Fisher, Whistler, Burne Jones, Crane and Sir 

John Gilbert. 
20 



306 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

After a period of stagnation, sculpture has made, 
during the later Victorian era, a distinct advance ; for 
Gilbert, at the end of the century, and Flaxman, 
at its commencement, join hands ; but it cannot be 
said that sculpture owes anything material to the 
fostering care of the Academy. Water-colour, our 
national art, which had so many brilliant practi- 
tioners at the beginning of the century — Prout, 
Hunt, Yarley, Girtin, Barret, de Wint, Fielding, Cox 
and Turner — languishes ; and this is in a measure 
due to the studious neglect it has experienced at the 
hands of Burlington House. Architecture shows 
healthy vitality at the end of the century ; but the 
Academy has done nothing to encourage it. The 
abominations of early Victorian furniture have given 
place to a pure and simple taste, though it is to be 
feared this change in taste is more a matter of 
fashion than of education and appreciation. So far 
as it goes, it is due to the Arts and Crafts Guild and 
kindred associations, and owes absolutely nothing 
to the Academy, which, calling itself the Koyal 
Academy of Arts, concerns itself almost exclusively 
with oil painting, and in that has done its utmost 
to set up a vicious standard. 

It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that out- 
side the British Isles, where its influence is mainly 
social, the influence of the Academy is, artistically, 
a repressive influence. In the larger sense, despite 
its schools, it has no educational power. While 
nearly all our best painters are self-trained, or owe 
their training to France, the rising painters of 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 307 

America, Canada and Australia are entirely in- 
debted to Paris for their education, as any exhibi- 
tion of their works conclusively proves. Obviously, 
however, the days are too young for any of the 
colonies to produce great painters. 

To turn from the Academy to the ISTational Gal- 
lery. That institution has on the whole been as 
well managed as the Academy has been badly con- 
ducted. Its curators have got together an ex- 
tremely representative collection. The authorities 
of South Kensington Museum, despite the charges 
of jobbery, carelessness and ignorance in making 
purchases, more or less successfully sustained 
against them, have secured for the nation a highly 
valuable collection of works of art (and of course 
the term is used as embracing art in all its forms), at 
an exceedingly small cost to the public. The crit- 
icism of the lapses of its governing body has served 
to divert public attention from the far more heinous 
sins of omission and commission of the Royal Acad- 
emy. As a matter of fact, it has done for the Em- 
pire a work of the utmost importance and value, a 
work which ought to have been performed by the 
Academy. There, with some reluctance, I must 
leave the matter. 

Coming to the Drama, there can be no question 
that, so far as the moral atmosphere of the theatre 
itself is concerned, the efforts of Macready, Irving 
and others have improved it greatly ; although I 
doubt very much whether this improvement is not 
rather one of outward decorum than a radical and 



308 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

an internal one. The members of " the profession " 
would now, as heretofore, deeply resent the imposi- 
tion, should society expect them to be the custodians 
of its morals. We have heard a great deal about 
church and stage in recent years, and the bruiting 
about of a rapprochement between the two as joint 
agents of moral and intellectual elevation has 
brought a cynical smile to the lips of the worldly- 
wise. Seriously, it is absurd to contend that the 
modern stage, divided, as it has been, between the 
plays which deal too nakedly with evils one cannot 
advertise without increasing, and opera louffe, in 
which the liberal exposure of feminine beauty and 
the singing of songs of doubtful propriety have 
been the principal attractions, has conduced to the 
elevation of public morals. A fierce side-light was 
thrown on the sincerity of the apologists and de- 
fenders of modern drama and its tendencies by the 
famous Ibsen controversy. Ko doubt Ibsen's plays 
were dangerous mental pabulum for persons of 
morbidly neurotic temperament ; but they at least 
made vice ugly enough, and in a manner essentially 
dramatic inculcated the old lesson, " The wages of 
sin is death." This position I am prepared to de- 
fend in the last ditch. Still the stage, which likes 
its own melodramatic order of ethical play, tabooed 
Ibsen's works, and superficial critics of the Clement 
Scott brand declared they were nauseating, im- 
moral, sale. These same critics are ready to ap- 
plaud as divertingly innocent, plays of the ordinary 
Parisian type, in which intrigues of the fraternity 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 309 

who go about neighing after their neighbours' wives 
are the alpha and omega of the plot. 

Personally I am convinced that the stage is any- 
thing but a moral factor, either in its jpersonnel or 
as an agent of amusement. It almost invariably 
has a distinctly lowering effect on its executive, the 
plaj^ers, and especially is this so in the case of the 
female portion thereof, for the life from beginning 
to end is destructive of the finer moral fibre of 
woman's nature. The growing love of the people 
for the theatre, music hall and ballet, — their growing 
love of pleasure, that is to say, — has had a very bad 
effect on the moral and intellectual stamina of the 
nation. Much more might be said but we will let the 
matter drop. For the rest, it is only in the nature of 
things that since the love of the theatre has grown 
immeasurably and the actor and actress have become 
far and away the best paid, though they are often 
the least worked, of any artistic profession, mem- 
bers of the acting fraternity occupy a more and 
more prominent place in the eyes of the community. 

As to the art of acting, the mimetic art, no doubt 
actors and actresses, as a whole, have become less 
" stagey " and more natural ; but on the other hand, . 
they have also become far less adaptable, with the 
result that the modern playwright is expected to 
write plays to suit certain companies, to bring out in 
his text, in fact, the little mannerisms of the respect- 
ive players. Under these circumstances it is not 
remarkable that dramatic art has made very little 
progress. It has become more natural like its ex- 



310 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EBIPIRE. 

ponents ; but modern drama lacks staying power. 
Like the novel and the newspaper article, it is the 
creature of the moment. With scarcely an ex- 
ception, a play, however successful, lives for a year 
in London at the most, another two in the provinces 
perhaps, and then sinks into utter and irretrievable 
oblivion. The public which knows nothing of pic- 
torial art, is scarcely better able to judge what con- 
stitutes real and abiding merit in a play. They go 
to see certain favourites well suited with parts. It 
is a personal affair. Voild tout / Real progress in 
art education has, however, been made in one direc- 
tion. We have produced no great musicians, but 
the people are far more appreciative of good music 
to-day than at any period of our history. London 
and the provinces, England and the colonies, know 
infinitely more about music than about any other 
art whatsoever. 

In speaking of the many educational and elevating 
agencies, real or supposed, at work during the cen- 
tury, we must by no means forget foreign travel. 
At the beginning of the century, all young men of 
birth made the grand tour. E'ow almost every young 
Englishman, and Englishwoman too for that matter, 
belonging to the great middle class, even including 
the more prosperous retail traders, make themselves 
acquainted with some if not all, the great show places 
of Europe, and this is true of the colonies as well as 
of England. Messrs. Cook & Sons have proved a 
great blessing to the people in this regard. If it 
cannot be said that the impression permanently re- 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 3II 

maining from these tours is a very deep and lasting 
one, it may at least be said that the increased facil- 
ities for travel have opened the eyes of the people, and 
added greatly to their enjoyment. 

So indeed have athletics, which may now be said, 
in one form or another, to have become the absorb- 
ing passion not only of Englishmen, young and old, 
the Empire over, but of Englishwomen too. The 
public schools and universities practically put ath- 
letics before scholastics. Cricket, foot-ball, golf, 
boating, yachting, swimming, cycling, have all their 
ardent votaries, while many young Englishmen 
make themselves proficient in one and all. Most 
Englishmen of the upper and upper middle classes 
are moderate riders, and so far as game shooting is 
concerned, fair shots. In the country districts of 
England and in the colonies the proportion of good 
horsemen and marksmen is of course much higher 
than in the urban districts of the United Kingdom. 
Rough riders the colonies can produce in thousands, 
as has been recently proved, but in Great Britain 
and even in the colonies, a small proportion only of 
the manhood of the Empire are expert shots. At 
home the defects of our young men in this respect 
became painfully apparent when recruiting for the 
Imperial Yeomanry was in progress. Up to the 
time of writing not half of the 10,000 men required 
for this service has been enlisted, though many 
tens of thousands offered themselves. Canada, in a 
lesser degree, has the same tale to tell. We may 
hope, however, that recent lessons will lead to these 



312 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

defects being remedied. Meanwhile, in the absence 
of conscription, which of course must come, the 
athletic tastes of the people are the nation's salva- 
tion. These outdoor sports are grand correctives 
of that neurotic morbidity, born of too much nib- 
bling at the fruit of the forbidden tree ; a practice 
unhappily too prominent among the many unwhole- 
some tendencies of the age. A word may be fit- 
tingly said here in approval of an excellent sugges- 
tion made some years ago by Mr. Astley Cooper, and 
strenuously fought for by that gentleman, that the 
British Empire should follow the precedent of an- 
cient Greece and inaugurate, to take place at fixed 
periods, Pan-Britannic Festivals, Olympian games, 
in which the stalwart sons of the British Empire 
from province, colony and dependency, should take 
part. The idea has still to fructify, but fructify it 
will. It will be one of the results of the present 
comradeships in arms and in sports, of the sons of 
the Home-land and of the lands over-seas. A 
system co-ordinate with Imperial defence will be 
another result of this co-operation in South Africa. 
Meanwhile the recurrent trials of skill at Bisley, 
the Oval and elsewhere, in shooting, cricket and foot- 
ball, between home-born and colonial-born English- 
men, are steps in this direction. 

The nineteenth century has been pre-eminently 
an age of sanitary progress ; and in this progress the 
British empire has taken the lead. One of the vol- 
umes of this series will cover the ground, and I need 
not do more than indicate on the broadest lines the 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 313 

course of that progress. Roughly it may be said 
that at the beginning of the century such attempts 
at sanitation as existed, when they were not based 
on superstition and quackery, were of a purely empi- 
rical nature. There was a direct tax on cleanliness, 
that is to say, on soap ; and on light, that is to say, on 
windows. Drinking water was systematically, so to 
speak, polluted by drainage. During the Queen's 
reign one hundred and fifty millions have been ex- 
pended on the water supply of the United Kingdom. 
In 1840 a Royal Commission was appointed to in- 
vestigate into the sanitary condition of the great 
towns, with the result that London, Liverpool and 
Glasgow were found to be living on a substructure 
of pollution and disease. The courts and alleys of 
these cities were in the most woeful state of neglect, 
many of the inhabitants living in cellars. Thanks 
to the efforts of the Prince Consort, one of the ablest 
and most zealous of the century's social reformers, 
and Lord Shaftesbury, and later of Lord Meath, 
Lord Aberdeen, the Baroness Burdett-Coutts, and a 
w^hole host of philanthropic societies, something has 
been done to remedy these evils, though it is to be 
feared the evils are so colossal no more than the 
fringe of them has been touched. In any case, much 
remains to be done. In 1885 a committee was formed 
to study the question of the Housing of the Poor. 
The Prince of Wales, the Marquis of Salisbury, Sir 
Charles Dilke and Cardinal Manning were among 
its members. The efforts of this committee bore 
good fruit. That the sanitary condition of the 



314 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

country has steadily improved, may be gathered 
from the fact that the annual rate of mortality in 
London was 1 in 23 in 1685, 1 in 40 in 1845, and 1 
in 51 in 1885. For the whole kingdom the rate for 
1891-5 was 1 in 53.47. The sanitary condition of 
the army and navy has wonderfully improved, and 
the medical and surgical staff of the former was 
winning in South Africa uoiversal admiration, until 
our pride and confidence were rudely disturbed by 
certain ugly assertions the actual truth of many of 
which has now been established. 

Of course this improvement in health is largely 
due to the marvellous discoveries of science : — the 
Listerian system of aseptic surgery, which is now 
practised " with almost as much scrupulousness in 
the Ehodesian as in the London hospitals," and the 
advance of bacteriology, which has taught us how 
to do battle with those minute organisms which 
carry the active principle of most z3^motic diseases. 
Compulsory vaccination, the benefits of which are 
now threatened in the United Kingdom by conces- 
sions to feeble sentimentalists and quacks who have 
set themselves up against the unanimous opinion of 
the medical profession, has had much to say to the 
lessening of mortality from small-pox. Formerly 
this awful scourge carried off the population in 
thousands. Even to-day many persons survive who 
declare that in their youth every tenth person was 
pitted with small-pox. Earlier still, a woman, how- 
ever homely-featured, not so disfigured, was ac- 
counted a beauty. Infant life, although still shame- 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 315 

fully sacrificed by ignorant, careless or even crimi- 
nal parents, is held far more precious than it was 
half a century ago ; and the decrease of deaths in 
midwifery, due to the use of antiseptics and chloro- 
form, has been most marked. At the moment I 
have mislaid the figures, but I know they are 
startling. Temperance advocates, tiresome as they 
become when they push their creed to extremes, 
such as advocating the closing of all public houses 
on Sunday, must be congratulated on the splendid 
work they have done in the interest of public mor- 
als and public health. They have yet to remove 
one of the scandals of our time, the tied-house mo- 
nopoly ; while for my part I hope to live to see the 
state rise superior to private interest and acquire 
the ownership and control of all the public houses 
of the kingdom. This I am firmly persuaded is the 
proper solution of the difficulty, and would prove 
far more effective than local-option or other forms 
of limited tyranny. Apropos, it is to be noted that 
go-ahead ISTew Zealand has recently (1896) decided 
by dipleliscite against local-option, and against the 
abolition of the licensing principle. 

In dismissing this matter, the health of the people, 
it is unfortunately necessary to add that, despite 
the marvellous general improvement in regard to 
sanitation, temperance, and the decrease of conta- 
gious diseases, there has been a marked increase in 
nervous maladies, and in cancer and insanity. 

I must pass over the advance in pure science, 
especially in geology and astronomy, as being of a 



316 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

general rather than a national character, and con- 
tent myself by observing that the progress of applied 
science and its employment in industrial improve- 
ment have added vastly to the comfort and wealth 
of all parts of the empire. 

Nothing perhaps has contributed more to the 
security and Avell-being of the people than the splen- 
didly organised police who have now taken the place 
of the useless watchman of the Georgian era. The 
general use of gas in lieu of oil lamps in lighting the 
streets has also had an admirable effect in keeping 
criminals within bounds. It is a commonplace of 
contemporary journalism to proclaim that there has 
been a great advance in the administration of civil 
law. I find Canon Farrar among the eulogists. He 
echoes the old cry that Charles Dickens is to be 
credited with these reforms. Charles Dickens cer- 
tainly did something in this direction and attempted 
more. All honour to him ! But I cannot say that, 
so far as my knowledge and observation go, I find 
that there has been any substantial progress. The 
law is still the rich man's luxury— I might say 
folly. The congestion of business in the courts leads 
to such lengthy delays, the wise commonly settle 
their disputes in chambers outside their doors. The 
laws of our land are still as cryptic, contradictory 
and uncertain of operation as they ever were. I 
know from bitter experience how uncertain and 
capricious they are. When, as in a case of which I 
have personal knowledge, one of a thousand of its 
kind, a simple issue is decided in one way by the 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 317 

Court of Cliaiicery, the finding confirmed by the 
Court of Appeal to be overruled by the House of 
Lords; the business consuming three years and 
large sums of money, and resulting in worrying the 
litigant into his grave, when as I say I know this 
case to be typical rather than particular, I shall be 
understood when I say that I incline to the general 
belief of the multitude that lav/ exists for the benefit 
of lawyers, and that the findings of the judges 
have about as much relation to equity as the ancient 
finding by the ordeal of burning, or the modern one 
of pitching a coin in the air. Meanwhile it cannot 
be said that much has been done to codify or to render 
intelligible the law at home or to assimilate the 
laws of the Motherland and the colonies, witness 
the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill. On the other band 
the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has 
grown into a useful body as a Court of Appeal for 
colonial litigants. 

The real advance in the administration of the law 
has been in the direction of humanising the criminal 
law. I believe I have already remarked that early 
in the century persons suffered the last penalty of 
the law for the most trivial offences ; the man who 
stole a loaf under the stress of keen hunger going to 
the gallows ; youths and even children being put to 
death for minor crimes. There were a hundred or 
more capital offences on the statute book ; and many 
of these laws far from being survivals of the mid- 
dle ages, were actually placed there during the reigns 
of the first three Hanoverian kings. I^Tow murder 



318 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

is practically the only crime visited with death, 
even persons guilty of high treason generally escape 
with a lighter punishment. Since the Queen came 
to the throne, the number of persons executed in 
the United Kingdom does not greatly exceed one 
thousand. Flogging has been abolished except in 
extreme cases of robbery with violence. I am free 
to confess, however, that I for one hold that senti- 
mentality has worked an ill service to the country 
in restricting the power of magistrates to order 
sturdy scoundrels the flogging they so richl}^ deserve, 
though I freely allow that since corporal punish- 
ment has been discontinued, the people as a whole 
have become far more humane, though it is scarcely 
proved that the improvement is consequent thereon. 
It is rather due, I think, to the strenuous efforts 
of a noble band of philanthropists and humanita- 
rians. Plimsoll did much to stop the criminal 
practice of sending unsea worthy vessels to sea, a 
practice often associated with moral murder, since 
the insurance money was contingent upon the loss of 
the vessel. Lighthouses have been built everywhere. 
The lives of workmen have come under all manner of 
statutes designed to protect them. Again private, 
that is to say personal cruelty has diminished with 
public cruelty. Animals are far less commonly ill- 
used than in former generations ; it is now many years 
since our streets were disgraced by the sight of dogs, 
their feet bleeding and torn, tethered to carts. The 
number of merciful men kind to their beasts has 
vastly increased. In fact the day has receded into 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 319 

the far past when a peer who ventured to state in 
the House of Lords that animals had their rights as 
well as men, was received with ironical laughter. 
The sensitiveness of public opinion on the subject of 
vivisection is another evidence of the awakened con- 
science of the people to the sufferings of the weak 
and helpless. 

The first volume of this series is devoted to the 
religious progress of the century, and I do not pro- 
pose to deal at any length with that subject as affect- 
ing the British Empire exclusively. Else I should 
have something to say on the influence exercised by 
such writers and preachers as Professor Maurice, 
Dean Stanley, Baldwin Brown, Professor Drum- 
mond ; on the vitalising Oxford movement ; and the 
zealous efforts of the High Church party to get at 
the minds and consciences of the people. What I 
must perforce say on the religious progress of the 
British race will be said in the concluding chapter of 
this volume ; but I will state here, that although I 
recognise that in the rural districts of England, 
especially in the sleepy southern counties, a great 
many slothful and even criminous priests still 
survive, I also recognise that the clergy of the Church 
of England, the Wesleyan and various Nonconformist 
churches, here and in the colonies, have done 
marvels for the people during the later Victorian 
era, and that they were never more zealous in good 
works than they are to-day. 

Here, too, it is only just and proper to give due 
recognition to the Salvation Army, that marvellous 



320 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

organisation working for human regeneration, 
which has arisen during, I think, the last twenty 
years or so ; in any case, I can remember its begin- 
ning, for when a boy I chanced more than once to 
hear General Booth's addresses in a small hall in the 
East End of London. From this grain of mustard 
seed a huge organisation has grown, and to-da}^ the 
Salvation Army bids fair to establish for itself a 
record as wonderful as that established by the 
Wesley ans in the eighteenth century. Its work has 
been truly national and imperial. General Booth's 
" In Darkest England " scheme of social regenera- 
tion not only aims at reclaiming, and does in a 
measure reclaim, the flotsam and jetsam of society 
at home, but establishes them in farms in the col- 
onies. He and his zealous coadjutors have done and 
are doing a truly noble work. 

I must say here, too, lest the time and space at 
my disposal prevent me from dealing with their 
achievements in detail, that the spread of British 
colonisation has not been the exclusive work of the 
great trading communities and their military ser- 
vants, the East India company, the ISTiger company, 
the Chartered company, and so forth, any more 
than it has of the scientific explorers ; but that the 
missionaries, despite some mistakes of method, have 
done their fair share of the work. The names of 
Livingstone and Moffatt, apart from the honour due 
to them as the protagonists of great spiritual truths, 
are entitled to be added to those of Grey, Gordon, 
Khodes, Taubman, Stanley, Burton, Grant and 
Speke as builders of our empire. 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 321 

But this chapter might be extended so as to exceed 
the limits of the whole volume and still be far from 
exhausting this branch of the subject. The social 
progress of the empire has so many aspects, that the 
reading of one set of facts seems to falsify the read- 
ing of another. Take, for instance, the question of 
class distinctions. There is perhaps no country so 
truly democratic as the British Empire, and Great 
Britain is probably, on the whole, as really demo- 
cratic as any of the colonies ; but throughout the 
length and breadth of Her Majesty's dominions 
place, honour, the highest titular distinction even, 
are open to all who can win them. Yet (and of 
course this is more noticeable in the home-land than 
in the colonies), there are few countries in which 
social divisions are so rigidly observed. At the 
moment there is an ugly exception to this rule : the 
consideration and attention paid by a certain sec- 
tion of the aristocracy to the mere millionaire. 
Perhaps the rigid observance of social differences does 
not make itself apparent to the foreigner, especially 
let me say to Austrians, because of the foregoing 
fact, the ridiculous premium put upon mere wealth, 
and the obtrusion everywhere of the awkward and 
pretentious newly-rich class. Moreover, there is a 
considerable amount of intermingling between the 
various grades of society, and a large amount of 
honhomie in the bearing of the upper classes toward 
the lower. Still in their inner life these various 
grades of society continue to run in their own ex- 
clusive grooves, and this despite all that the facili- 

21 



32^ PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ties for travel, levelling in dress, mixing in railway- 
car and omnibus, equal electoral privileges, cheap 
education, and so forth, has accomplished during 
the century. 

Nevertheless, there is a wonderful amount of co- 
hesion and unity about the nation. There is com- 
paratively little direct oppression of the poor by the 
rich, and as little personal and individual envying 
of the rich or high-placed on the part of the poor. 
Some one has said that, although socialism makes 
little or no headway, it is because the workers are 
so well paid ; but that since five millions of these 
workers are entirely dependent on their weekly 
wage for subsistence, socialism would make rapid 
progress were a great war to put a stop to industry 
at home and supplies of food from without. This 
and many another ugly charge was brought against 
our people by an anonymous critic calling himself 
a Boer, whose letters to the Times and Morning 
Post excited a good deal of attention at about the 
time hostilities broke out in South Africa. These 
contentions remain to be proved hereafter, for the 
present war will scarcely affect the poorer classes, 
while as for socialism, it is literally a case of " duke's 
son and cook's son " fighting side by side in South 
Africa, and the fact that scarcely an ancient Eng- 
lish family is unrepresented at the front, has made 
a deep impression on the people, so that the Eadical 
outcry against the House of Lords, never popular 
with the masses, is certain to fall flatter than ever 
next time it is raised. The fact is the people's com- 



SOCIAL PROGRESS. 323 

mon sense tells them they have too much power, 
and they instinctively cling to the cog on their ovrn 
wheels. For the rest, the existence of a well-to-do 
middle class, ambitious of rising, is another cement- 
ing force in the state. How greatly this class has 
grown in wealth may be gauged by one fact alone. 
In 1840 the banking power of the United Kingdom 
amounted to £132,000,000, or £5 per inhabitant ; in 
1895 it reached £1,111,000,000, or £28 per inhab- 
itant. Of course this growth is in a measure due to 
the fact that the increased facilities for banking 
induce men to bank to-day who never thought of 
doing so a generation or two back. - 

In the foregoing rapid survey of the social prog- 
ress of the people it has not been found necessary in 
every case to load the page with details and statis- 
tics as applying to each particular colony, inas- 
much as, unless stated to the contrary, colonial de- 
velopment, in all the matters treated of, has been 
roughly concurrent with the development of the 
metropolis, though in some cases, of course, devel- 
opment has been confined mainly to the Mother- 
land. In education, physical training, sanitation, 
political emancipation, the progress of mother and 
parent has been practically simultaneous. Again, 
most of the colonies are suffering from the social 
evils consequent upon the rapid acquisition of 
wealth by certain sections of the community, just 
as the metropolis is. They are beginning already 
to feel the evil effects of the tendency of the people 
to herd together in the large towns ; pauperism is 



324 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

raising its ugly head in these towns, and the desti- 
tute alien, Polish Jews and other continental detri- 
mentals, are beginning to flock into these big colo- 
nial towns as they have flocked for years into the 
East End of London. It has been shown that so 
far from the United Kingdom containing a large 
percentage of foreigners, it contains only about 
200,000, or 6 per 1000 of the population, w^hereas 
France has 30 to each 1000 and Switzerland YY. 
The mischief is, however, that the foreigners who 
favour Great Britain with their presence are, at the 
present time, for the most part undesirable addi- 
tions to its people, of the kind mentioned above. 
In the colonies, however, some of the most useful 
colonists are foreigners. 

These, however, are side issues; the British Em- 
pire is a big place; and if rubbish is shot in at 
different corners of its vast area, no doubt it can be 
absorbed. Happily, for the British race, it has re- 
ceived far more good than harm from the foreign 
strains intermingling with it in the past and it is 
likely to continue to do so in the future. 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 325 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 

Of the position of women in the century what 
shall be said where there is so much to say ? That 
this writer is in the fullest sympathy with women in 
their struggle to free themselves from subjection to 
unfair disabilities and unjust laws, and rejoices in the 
fact that so large a measure of success has crowned 
their efforts, need scarcely be said. In previous 
publications he has set down this sympathy over and 
over again, and need not recant anything he has 
written. J^evertheless, it is impossible, in taking a 
broad and general survey of the position of women 
to-day in the social economy of the nation, to sup- 
press feelings of disappointment ; if not alarm. I 
hasten to add that for the most part these unsatis- 
factory developments as touching a certain section, 
and it is to be feared a large one, of the female 
population of the country, cannot justly be regarded 
as the outcome of that larger measure of education 
and freedom women have enjoyed, but, on the whole, 
as in despite of it. "With this matter we will deal 
later. 

Irrespective of the foregoing consideration, I am 
free to confess that so far as tlie so-called new 
^lovement goes, it has led to certain ugly develop- 



326 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ments which one cannot contemplate without experi- 
encing feelings of considerable disquietude. The 
fact is there are all sorts and conditions of modern 
women ; and although all may be considered the 
outgrowth of one movement, the successful demand 
of advanced women for a larger measure of freedom 
and the conceded right to order their lives accord- 
ing to their own ideals and standards rather than 
those concerning them cherished by men, the types 
evolved are at the opposite poles of thought, and, 
for that matter, of action. So far as the eternal 
problems of sex are concerned, there are, for in- 
stance, women who seem to be far less troubled at the 
immorality of the average man than they are at the 
conventional disabilities under which they them- 
selves suffer. They would appear not to direct 
their energies so much to insisting that human soci- 
ety should exact a higher standard of morality 
from man, and that the individual male offending it 
should be ostracised, but go about bewailing the in- 
justice of visiting condign social punishment upon 
women for sins which in men are regarded as com- 
paratively venial and are readily condoned. I 
think it was Lady Jeune who besought advanced 
women not to ruin their chances of elevating men 
by such clumsy tactics as these. Whatever may be 
man's sins, many well-meaning women seem to forget 
that man has, by the law of his being and the ac- 
cumulated effect of ages of license, — for monogamy 
is a very recent social innovation in the evolution 
of our race, — infinitely greater temptation to sex- 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 327 

ual sin than has woman. They seem to forget, too, 
that nature, against whose ruling it is foolish to 
contend, since no court of appeal can reverse her 
judgment, has decreed that woman, being the cus- 
todian, generation after generation, of the coming 
race, must preserve her virtue intact if that race is 
to advance, or, as might be said, survive. 

Then there is that quite opposite, but almost, 
equally misguided school of women thinkers in 
whom the study of sexual problems has bred 
a repugnance and horror of the laws of nature; 
a kind of immodest modesty, which, really the 
outcome of too much thinking on one subject, 
or of an unconscious pruriency, has bred in them 
a form of neurotic hysteria — often the infirmity of 
noble minds, for did not the great nature-lover, 
Eichard Jeffries, by taking much thought about it, 
persuade himself that the horse, so far from being 
a lovely creature, was really a hideous misshapened 
brute, an unhappy conglomeration of ugly angles and 
harsh protuberances. 

Two extremes of the emancipated woman have 
been mentioned, but between them there are all 
manner of gradations. The social purity woman 
with more zeal than discretion is one. "We might for 
the purposes of this survey divide the advanced 
woman in the political arena from the advanced 
woman in the social arena. There are, of course, in 
the former category, many women or coteries of 
women,with more zeal than discretion . That women 
possessing the property or other qualification which 



328 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

entitles men to vote should be debarred by their sex 
from exercising the suffrage, is an affront which 
they do well to resent. It is an insult to highly- 
educated and splendidly-endowed women, that the 
merest poltroon, the " waster," " bar-lounger," and 
a hundred thousand others, absolutely incapable 
of understanding what politics means, much less of 
forming judgments on intricate questions of policy, 
should be enfranchised merely because they are 
males ; while women qualified in every way, save by 
sex, to choose members of parliament, should go 
voteless. 

No fair-minded person, male or female, should 
withhold sympathy from women who are fighting 
for the removal of these political disabilities, and 
for my part I should like to see them removed ; 
even, perhaps, — though I admit this would be a 
questionable concession, since you cannot obliterate 
sex, — the disability which excludes women from 
Parliament. In this connection it must not be for- 
gotten that in regard to certain questions, women's 
first-hand opinions must be more valuable than when 
distilled through the brains of men. 

That women in any large numbers should " take 
to politics " would in any case be nothing short of a 
national calamity. I recognise, of course, that all 
women cannot be wives and mothers, and cannot be 
concerned directly in a far higher sphere of govern- 
ment than a house of assembly affords, the ruling of 
a home and the moulding of the future generation. 
For the most part the business of party politics is 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 329 

profitless and the old-fashioned among us think 
that even when a woman cannot be, or will not be wife 
and mother, she does the next best thing, when that 
is possible, in assisting in the ordering of a home in- 
directly, or, in other words, that the home in the 
eternal nature of things is the woman's province ; 
that in the home she achieves her greatest triumphs 
and does her noblest work, and that women who 
deny this, or affect to see something subservient, 
subordinate or secondary in domestic duties, suffer 
from an unfortunate perversion of their natures. 
This however harmless in the individual would, 
if it became general, absolutely destroy human 
society, and send us all back to a condition far more 
degraded than elemental savagery. 

Having said this, does it seem inconsistent to 
recognise as signs of real progress the admission of 
Avomen to such of the learned and artistic profes- 
sions for which their particular genius may fit 
them ? We may accept this as progress, because it 
is only just to half humanity ; moreover society 
gains by the presence of a leaven of women in such 
professions as medicine and science, and in many 
trades. Since girls are now so generally employed 
in factories — seeing that the unfortunate revolt 
against domestic service, another symptom of the 
unsexing of women, makes employment in shops 
and factories the choice of two evils, the other we 
need merely hint at to indicate — female factory-in- 
spectors are eminently needed. Indeed one might 
go through a long list of employments and oflS.c^s 



330 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

and show that in them women are not only well 
employed, but that their places could not be effect- 
ively filled by men. So far as the entry of women 
into the various trades or professions is concerned, 
most sensible persons are content to regard it sim- 
ply as a matter of expediency and not one of prin- 
ciple. Obviously, too, it is a clear gain to humanity 
in the aggregate that so many avenues are now 
open to women, relieving them of that dependent 
state which obliged them to enter into loveless mar- 
riages, or to descend to another, and, in its conse- 
quences, still more brutalising form of prostitution. 
But since marriage for man and woman individually 
and the state collectively remains the most ideally 
desirable as it is rationally, the most healthful insti- 
tution, it must be remembered that the lowering of 
wages and the competition for employment conse- 
quent upon the entrance of woman into various 
callings formerly filled by men exclusively, has been 
a fruitful cause, among other causes, of the steady 
falling off in the number of marriages, the deferring 
of marriage to late in life, and in the increase in 
those social evils which make for the degradation 
and ruin of a race. 

As to the advance women have made during the 
century in personal liberty, it has been anything 
but inconsiderable. The Married Woman's Property 
Act protects wives' property from the rapacity of 
unprincipled hu^ands. Then a far more reasonable 
interpretation has been put upon the law of divorce. 
A woman has now less difficulty in freeing herself 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 33I 

from a faithless and brutal husband who has been 
guilty of cruelty, should that cruelty have taken a 
moral rather than a physical form. The famous 
Clitheroe case secured for all women the legal right 
to live apart from husbands obnoxious to them. A 
good deal has been said and written as to the laws 
favoring the male at the expense of the female, and 
so after all the reforms of the century they still do, 
but in this case the woman has the advantage, since a 
wife can compel her husband to live under the same 
roof with herself and to provide for her maintenance 
— for this after all is the meaning of the law of 
conjugal rights — whereas a husband cannot compel 
his wife to live under his roof. In the foregoing, 
and in a score of ways besides, such as the custody 
of children, British women have been relieved in 
almost every essential from that condition of sub- 
jection to men in which they found themselves at 
the beginning of the century. They have also es- 
caped from the leading-strings of men, in social 
matters, in a hundred ways. They move about in 
train, omnibus and cab, attend public places, be- 
come members of clubs, and so forth, without incur- 
ring reproach. They are the companions of men 
in all manner of sports and pastimes, in fact, all 
said and done, this comradeship between men and 
women, pushed dangerously and indeed mischiev- 
ously far as it is in these days, is the great note of 
the century's advance, and marks more than any- 
thing else, the difference between the women of to- 
day and their great-grandmothers in 1800. 



332 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

That women then found their compensation in 
scores of domestic accomplishments now too com- 
monly neglected and despised, is true ; but the self- 
indulgent habits of the men in all classes of society, 
save the middle class, must have made their com- 
panionship exceedingly distasteful to the whole- 
some-minded and pure-living women to whom they 
were mated^ In those days women of the upper 
classes saw little enough of their men-folk, and 
when they did see them they were generally in a 
condition of befuddlement or worse. Then again 
what an advance is the modern girl, provokingly 
self-assertive and masculine as she tends in extreme 
cases to be, upon the simpering, head-on-one-side, 
butter-couldn't-melt-in-her-mouth miss, shy, coy and 
void of ideas, of the early Victorian age. But this 
advance has not been absolute ; in some cases it 
has been accompanied by positive retrogression. 

]!^revertheless, take the century as a whole, British 
and American women may claim to have accom- 
plished marvels in it ; not only marvels for their 
own sex, but for humanity as a whole. Those 
sturdy pioneers of political progress and female en- 
franchisement, Susan Anthony, Mrs. Wolstenholme 
Elmy, Mrs. Fawcett, Mrs. Mona Caird, Mrs. Bid- 
dulph Martin (Yictoria WoodhuU) have not yet seen 
the final crowning of their efforts in the recognition 
of their claim " that the help of politically-enfran- 
chised women is needed for the upbuilding of the 
higher humanity that is to be," but they are likely 
to do so, while in 'New Zealand the electoral act of 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 333 

1893 took the bold step of admitting women to the 
franchise, though they are not yet permitted to sit 
in the House of Eepresentatives. Mrs. Somerville, 
Hannah More, and many another woman of light 
and leading who had to struggle against discourage- 
ment in their homes and in society to get themselves 
educated, would have rejoiced to see young women 
of the last and penultimate decade of the century. 
Miss Kamsay (Mrs. Butler), Miss Fawcett, for in- 
stance, taking the highest honours in open competi- 
tion with men at the Universities. At Oxford and 
Cambridge colleges have been set apart exclusively 
for women. Then Elizabeth Fry, Hannah More 
and more recently Florence JN'ightingale, noble 
women working to raise the bankrupt, morally and 
physically, out of their evil state, Or to nurse the 
suffering, may be regarded as the protagonists of 
thousands of altruistic women of to-day, toiling in 
the slums of cities in the cause of humanity, and 
especially in the interests of child-life ; and yonder 
on the battle-field proving themselves ministering 
angels indeed. 

Undoubtedly there has been progress, splendid 
progress too, in the status of British women during 
the century, though, it would be idle to contend that 
this advance has been achieved without entailing 
some sacrifices. 

At the commencement of this rapid and neces- 
sarily imperfect survey of the position and progress 
of British women in the century I indicated that as 
it seemed to me there was a canker in the very bud 



334 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

of this advance. Its presence is scarcely to be re- 
garded as an outcome of that advance ; but rather 
as in despite of it, save in so far as the greater free- 
dom and power women possess to-day than in any 
other period of the world's history — modern history 
in any case — mean freedom and power for evil as 
well as for good. And it cannot be denied that in 
all our large cities, here and in the colonies — London 
being the centre of everything naturally epitomises 
and focuses the evil — a body of women are in social 
power who, so far from making for the strength- 
ening of men and for the uplifting of society, are 
working with all their might and main to weaken 
the country's manhood and debase society. I am 
not referring to the so-called Social Evil ; the social 
evil I have in mind is of a far more insidious char- 
acter. Women in thousands and tens of thousands 
are employing their wealth, opportunities, talents 
and such beauty as nature may have given them or 
art has been called upon to simulate, for no other 
purpose than their own and society's enslavement 
and degradation. Pleasure is their god, and dress 
their constant pre-occupation. The women of this 
class do not commonly belong to the real and abid- 
ing society of the country, the aristocracy, a word 
used in default of a better and more embracing one, 
though in the ranks of this class are to be found 
women of birth jostling with women sprung from 
nowhere. Education, good manners, far less any 
real refinement or intellectual vigour, are not in 
themselves passports to the " smart " set ; they are 



THE ADVANCE OF WOMAN. 335 

barriers. The one indispensable, practically the only 
passport asked for, is the power to spend money, no 
matter how come by, the willingness to be con- 
stantly whirling from one function to another, an 
easy laxity as to morals, and the absence of a fine 
standard of conduct, the presence of which might 
constitute its possessor a kill-joy, a spectre at the 
feast, its orgies, banalities and excesses. " Smart- 
ness " is the catch-word of the Sisterhood, and pop- 
ularity is assured to any one who possesses what 
passes in this motley company for wit. Absolutely 
diseased as this great organism is, it possesses the 
qualities of a contagious malady. Its morbific 
energy is tremendous : while it has infected in no 
small degree the staple society above it, it has 
spread its corrupting influence downwards, and 
transmitted its vicious ideals of life — its love of 
dress, change and pleasure — to thousands of women, 
who, lacking the means to indulge them, pine in 
envious misery outside. 

It is impossible to blink our eyes to the fact that 
" wealth with its wine and its wedded harlots," to 
use Tennyson's words, has exercised a most baneful 
influence on the fortunes of the country. Exacting 
what they are pleased to call pleasure as the normal 
condition of their lives, demanding constant excite- 
ment and change, and, like the Athenians of old, 
craving ever some new thing, these women have 
drawn after them not only their own men-folk, but 
men who ought to have been too proud to swell 
their train. The emasculation in high places, that 



336 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

is to say, the revelations of neglected duties and care- 
lessly discharged obligations, which recent events 
have disclosed, must in no small degree be attrib- 
uted to these Delilahs. They have cut the locks of 
our Samsons and sapped their strength. 

But it is said these excesses are good for trade. 
Just so. The heaped-up figures of our national 
wealth impress at first sight, but wealth may be 
purchased at too high a price. Unquestionably the 
society of which I have written is largely respon- 
sible for the commercial immorality of the age, the 
hasting to be rich and its concomitant scandals of 
which we have had a luxuriant crop in recent years. 
Moreover luxury and extravagance and the worship 
of externals can never be good for trade in the last 
event, seeing that they destroy the virility of the 
race, and end by making it powerless to compete 
successfully with the watchful and more self-con- 
trolled foreigner. 

But there is hope for the future. If I read the 
signs of the times aright, the malady is passing. 
The worst sinners in this pinchbeck society of triflers 
are not the young women of to-day : they belong to 
another generation despite their more or less suc- 
cessful attempts to disguise the fact. That they 
make desperate attempts to inoculate their daughters 
with the poison which is in their own blood is only 
too true ; but the open-air school is growing in power, 
and recent events have brought home, even to those 
women born into a world where the pursuit of 
" pleasure " is the only serious business of life, con- 



The advance of woman. 337 

ceptions of a higher and loftier aim and of simpler 
joys ; and we may hope that the canker which for 
a whole generation has been sapping our national 
strength has submitted to the surgeon's knife. 
22 



338 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 



CHAPTER XIY. 

DEFENCE THE AKMY. 

A CYNIC might be pardoned for saying that where- 
as when the century opened no scheme of impe- 
rial defence had been so much as sketched out, its 
close reveals very much the same condition of af- 
fairs. Of course, as may be presently shown, such a 
statement would be a mere exuberance of rhetoric ; 
but it is true nevertheless that so far as any system 
of united defence is concerned, the Empire is very 
little nearer that goal at which, during the last 
quarter of a century, scores of distinguished writers 
and speakers have been aiming, than it was in those 
dark ages of universal indifference before they took 
up their parable. In saying this, I am, of course, 
referring to actual achievement. I am sanguine 
enough to believe we are on the eve of great things, 
of which we may see the beginning, in any case, 
before the century closes. 

It may be safely asserted that at the beginning of 
the century little or nothing in the way of colonial 
defence had been attempted. Canada's militia must 
be excepted, the militia which, despite local disaffec- 
tion, stood by the Mother Country so loyally in 1812. 
Nevertheless the Empire has never been so safe from 
attack as it was in 1805, after Trafalgar ; for France, 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 33O 

our only rival on the seas, was reduced by that 
battle to naval impotence. Nobody menaced our 
colonies then ; nobody could menace them. Indeed, 
in looking back upon the history of those times, one 
can, considering our opportunities, only marvel at 
the moderation we shewed in acquiring colonies. 
We might have taken many more islands and main- 
lands had our maw for territory been really so 
rapacious as our critics have represented. In any 
case we might have provided ourselves with many 
more places of call between our several possessions 
without provoking the comment, or even attracting 
the attention of Europe. That we did not do so, is 
of course to be attributed to the fact, that, in the days 
before steam locomotion had revolutionized the con- 
ditions of naval warfare, these houses of call, coal- 
ing stations they have now become, were not so 
pressingly necessary as they are to-day. 

But the mention of coaling stations reminds me 
that I am anticipating. Before we proceed to set 
forth what progress has been made in the business 
of defending British colonies individually, or in the 
direction of co-operative or federal defence, it will 
be well to deal with the progress made in the de- 
fensive and offensive services of the Mother Country ; 
because, as a matter of fact, it is still to the army and 
navy of the parent country — or as I should now per- 
haps say, it is still to that navy — the colonies look 
for protection in the hour of their need. 

At the beginning of the centur}^ the British army 
is stated to have numbered 168,000 men, and to have 



340 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

cost the country about 18 millions for its annual 
maintenance. In 1810, we were employing a great 
many foreign troops, and the total of the forces re- 
ceiving our direct pay amounted to 300,000 men. 
In the last year of the war this total was maintained, 
but the sum voted for the support of this army 
had risen from £26,748,000 in 1810 to £39,150,000 
in the ^^ear of Waterloo. After the peace, the 
strength of the British army was rapidly reduced. 
Its numbers stood at 88,100 in 1820 and 89,300 in 
1830. When the Queen came to the throne in 
1837, the actual strength of the regular army was 
just over 100,000 men, though on paper it stood at 
111,200 men. In 1818, our army reached its min- 
imum during the century, numbering 80,000 men, 
the cost to the country then being some 6J millions 
sterling. 

At the conclusion of peace, in 1815, the nation 
seemed to have been impressed with the belief that 
there would be no more war, or that in any case the 
contingency was so remote it was useless to spend 
large sums upon the services. Although it would 
seem that the Duke of Wellington himself shared, 
in some measure, this opinion, in any case he was 
prouder of having secured, as he hoped, universal 
peace than of his military glory, he naturally did his 
best to prevent the array from dwindling into 
nothingness, though it was little he could do. The 
present Commander-in-chief, Lord Wolseley,* is right 
in attributing the revival of interest in the army to 
a series of important events which set the people 
* In 1900. 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 341 

thinking seriously about the safety of their country. 
The first determining cause may be said to have 
been the threatening attitude of the French army, 
many of whose oiScers, late in the fifties, openly 
declared their eagerness to lead an attack on Eng- 
land. The Queen's diary shows that she shared 
the general mistrust of Louis ISTapoleon, who, on the 
occasion of Her Majesty's visit to Cherbourg with 
the Prince Consort, made it obvious to her that he 
intended the display of ships and guns as a menace 
to her Kingdom. The Austro-Prussian war and the 
Franco-German war, completed the work which 
J^apoleon's III.'s uncertain attitude began, and Eng- 
land became more and more seriously dissatisfied 
with her army. The events of 1859, the French 
menace that is to say, led to the volunteer move- 
ment which has given us a citizen force of 265,000 
men,* who may be relied upon to render an excellent 
account of themselves should they ever be called 
upon to defend the kingdom. Of course in saying 
this one is speaking of their spirit and soldier-like 
qualities. With their limitations, I shall deal later. 
There was another cause which must not be forgot- 
ten why the English people became dissatisfied with 
the small and utterly inefficient army, which for 
forty years after the conclusion of peace in 1815, 
had appeared to them to be sufficient for their needs. 
The Crimean war brought the fact home to the 

* This was the full establishment in January, 1900. Actual 
numbers were about 222,000, reduced to about 213,000 by ab- 
sence of several thousand in South Africa. 



34:2 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

entire nation that it had been grossly deceived as to 
the efficiency of its army, and showed it that of 
military organization there was none. This knowl- 
edge, and the lamentable breakdown of our army, 
filled the soul of the nation with gall and worm- 
wood. As Lord Wolseley says, it was a sad joke to 
speak of this force of some 30,000 men as an army 
at all ; since it was disgracefully deficient in artil- 
lery, in transport equipment entirely so, and had no 
civil department worthy of the name. Our imme- 
diate ancestors have told us of the miserable plight to 
which these brave men were reduced. They had 
to go through the interminable routine of winter 
trench work without proper food or clothing ; the 
food was abominable, and the boots turned out to be 
so much brown paper ; in some cases children's boots 
were sent out. We very nearly came to utter grief ; 
and that we managed to secure a technical victory 
over the enemy, is only to be explained when we 
remember the Russian army was the poorest of 
poor stuff. 

Bearing in mind the miserable materials, not in a 
physical but in every other respect, which went to 
the making of our army, both as to officers and men, 
during the half century or so between 1815 and 1860, 
the marvel is that we were able to give so good an 
account of ourselves in the various wars, great and 
small, in which we were engaged during those years. 
It is true we came by disaster in the Afghan wars, 
a disgraceful page of our history ; while, on the 
whole, we have had small reason to be proud of our 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 343 

military achievements during that half century in 
China, India, l^ew Zealand, Burmah and South 
Africa. Lord "Wolseley does not mince matters. 
Condemning the system under which our soldiers 
were trained and sent into the field, he is more 
severe still on the faults, not as to bravery, of 
course, but as to military knowledge and soldierlike 
capacity, of their leaders. The nation became ex- 
ceedingly impatient under all these exhibitions of 
incompetence ; and although the splendid achieve- 
ments of our army in India, in suppressing the 
Sepoy rebellion, did something to restore its equa- 
nimity, the terrible losses entailed, and the serious 
mistakes made throughout those three years of 
hard fighting, would not permit the people to dis- 
miss the army from their minds. Their cogitations 
bore fruit later. 

Although I have examined many works and 
ofiicial statements dealing with the conditions of the 
British army in the period under review, I find that 
Lord Wolseley, in his famous essay on the army,* 
has set forth all the essentials of the case, so that in 
the two or three pages to follow I have in a large 
measure merely paraphrased, condensed and anno- 
tated his work. It seems, as I have already said, 
that, after 1815, the people insisted on something 
very much like general disarmament. They were 
sick of war, and only consented to the retention of 
the standing army when it Avas explained to them 
that India could not go undefended ; that our colo- 

* Ward's The Reign of Queen Victoria, Vol. I. 



344: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

nists must be protected from the savage races among 
whom they were settled ; and that soldiers were 
essential for the maintenance of law and order at 
home. It must be remembered that our present 
police system was not called into existence until 
1829. The Duke of Wellington's immense personal 
prestige and influence were exerted to the utmost 
to keep the army up to a respectable footing as to 
numbers ; but he had to hide the regiments away in 
small detachments throughout the United Kingdom 
and the colonies. The forces were ridiculously 
armed, sometimes not armed at all. As to the 
men's character and conduct it was such that the 
Duke could write about the army as follows : " The 
man who enlists into the British army is, in general, 
the most drunken, and probably the worst man of 
the village or town in which he lives." They could, 
said Wellington, only be improved " by discipline 
and precept and the example of the old soldiers." 
Sweepingly and quaintly enough, he added, in con- 
demnation of the common soldiers, that if they were 
not themselves in the degraded class, "they de- 
served to be placed there for some action or other 
twenty times in every week." In fact the Duke 
spoke of and regarded our soldiers, as " the scum of 
the earth." His only system with them was cor- 
poral punishment, flogging for every offence. It 
would appear that this great general had not even 
that mitigated affection for the men under his com- 
mand which his oiflcers had, a feeling similar to 
that entertained by them for their horses and their 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 345 

doofs. But it never occurred to these officers, much 
less to the Duke, that, by exercising a greater meas- 
ure of liberality in housing, paying and feeding the 
soldier, by treating him as a fellow-human being, a 
better class of recruit might be obtained for the 
army. The Commander-in-Chief and his entourage^ 
in fact the commissioned officers of the army gen- 
erally, not only did not believe in such measures, 
but opposed with all their power any attempt to 
proceed along such lines, regarding them as dan- 
gerous innovations. 

Sir Charles I^apier endeavoured to get in the thin 
end of the wedge by urging his brother officers to 
popularise the army by reducing the term of service 
to seven years. The prejudice in favour of life 
enlistment was very strong ; and it was not until 
1847 that enlistment for a period of ten years was 
legalised. This was done, as it was found impossible 
to procure the 10,000 recruits required annualh^ 
notwithstanding that the enlisting sergeants ^Yere 
encouraged to stupefy the yokels with drink, and in 
that condition to excite their imaginations by lying 
stories as to the advantages of the service. In point 
of fact the system was merely a variant on the 
obnoxious impressment system. Since troops were 
nearly all their time abroad, for the most part in 
unhealthy climates, huddled together in utterly in- 
sanitary barracks, their moral, intellectual and phy- 
sical well-being entirely uncared for, burthened with 
a ridiculous dress which in hot countries conspired 
to carry large numbers off from sunstroke and apo- 



34:6 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

plexy, and since those soldiers who were married 
with the consent of their colonels, had to submit to 
seeing their wives and daughters lodged in the same 
apartments with the single soldiers, while those who 
married without leave were in a state even more 
evil, there is small wonder that the soldier came to 
be regarded as a social pariah, as in fact, a pestilen- 
tial criminal allowed partial liberty in consideration 
of his engaging to fight the country's battles. The 
late Prince Consort — of whom let it be once more said 
that to him England and the Empire owe a debt of 
gratitude, as the foremost social reformer of his 
day and generation, which can never be repaid, for 
this noble, disinterested and cruelly misunderstood 
and maligned public servant, sealed his service with 
his life — took up the cause of the soldier with that 
singleness of purpose which characterised his every 
act, and as an earnest of reforms to follow, secured 
for him that in his married state he should be 
segregated from the celibate portion of his regiment. 
As to the officers, doubtless they improved with 
the improved manners of the times, following those 
days when the influence of the Prince Regent 
(George lY.) gave the note to the tone of society. 
The Duke of Wellington had a very poor opinion 
of the mental equipment of the gentlemen holding 
the Queen's commission serving under him. Brave, 
honourable, ready to lead their men anywhere they 
were. This no one could or can deny ; but they 
had rarely, if ever, any knowledge of the art of war, 
save only in so far as it consisted in moving their 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 3^7 

men about correctly in the barrack yard. It is true 
that between the years 1815 and 1854 they enjoj^ed 
scant opportunities of learning the art of war in the 
field. So that when we found ourselves face to face 
with Russia in the last mentioned year, our army 
was discovered to be deficient in almost every 
quality which goes to make an effective fighting 
machine. Courage, physical strength and capacity 
for prolonged endurance it possessed ; these were its 
sole endowments. Lord Wolseley says that in the 
early part of the Queen's reign, " the army Avas con- 
temptible in numbers, hidden away in small bodies 
all over the earth, its rank and file as described by 
the Duke of Wellington, its officers ignorant of 
military science; badly equipped and absurdly 
dressed, destitute of those civil departments without 
which no army can exist in the field, it was indeed 
in a pitiable condition in all respects." So Yar as I 
can judge, Lord Wolseley's description does not err 
on the side of exaggeration, nor can he be gainsaid 
when he declares that, had the French landed 100,- 
000 or even 50,000 men in the Thames or on the 
South coast, our army could not have saved London 
from capture. 

We had no forts worthy the name. Visitors to 
the South coast are familiar with those inverted 
mustard-pot buildings, Martello towers, Avhich were 
to prove our salvation in the case of invasion. It is, 
in fact, only in recent years that we have given 
anything like adequate attention to the defence of 
our coasts, or of our capital. Our ancestors would 



348 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

have opened their eyes at that enormous fort and 
place of arms at the top of Keigate Hill, within a 
stone's throw of the old Pilgrim's Way between 
London and Canterbury, which I was permitted to 
inspect some little time since. I mention it merely 
to show that at last we are becoming alive to the 
serious increase in the risks of invasion to which the 
inventions of modern science have laid us open, and 
that in quite recent years we have taken some steps 
to provide against them. But this by the way. 

The decay^ of the army in those earlier days of 
the century was paralleled by the decay of the 
militia, which, until its re-organisation in 1852, had 
become an entirely eifete and contemptible limb 
of the service. The Yeomanry were in little better 
case. 

General Sir John Burgoyne's spirited paper, ad- 
dressed to Lord John Russell and his colleagues, 
came as a bomb-shell to the nation. He reminded 
the government that, after we had garrisoned Ireland, 
India and the colonies, we could not put more than 
5,000 to 10,000 men into the field for the protection 
of Great Britain ; that in Great Britain and Ire- 
land we had not enough field guns for 20,000 men, 
and that even our dockyards would succumb to a 
sudden and reasonably capable attack. The Duke 
of Wellington backed up Sir John Burgoyne. This 
was in 1846. The warning fell on deaf ears. Lord 
Palmerston Avas alone attentive, but it was not until 
1859 that he was able to put the plans for national 
defence, he then formed, into execution. In that 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 349 

year, he succeeded in getting through a vote for 
Y|- millions for fortifications. 

Then followed the great Yolunteer movement of 
1859-60, stimulated by that far-seeing patriot, 
though he Avas an adopted and not a born son of 
England, who shared with the Queen the responsi- 
bilities of government. It was the Prince Consort 
who drafted the " Instructions to Lords Lieutenant," 
which were the regulations upon which the volun- 
teer force was raised and organised. Now there 
can be no doubt that the existence of this force — 
which, starting with some 120,000 men, has gone on 
rapidly increasing in numbers and efficiency until it 
now reaches some 265,000 men (nominal strength) 
and in efficiency is, so far as the conditions and 
limitations under which it labours will permit, in a 
most satisfactory state — has often enough caused 
our enemies to pause before committing themselves 
to an attack upon us. Space will not allow us of 
going into the history of this patriotic force, 
which now, after being subjected to the desipient 
banter of Pimch, the snubs of the War Office, 
the sneers of the Army, and the neglect of the peo- 
ple, has won its way to the affection and respect of 
all classes of the community. 

The Commander-in-Chief is as unstinting as any- 
one in his praise of this magnificent citizen force, 
which in a manner entirely magnanimous has come 
forward at its own charges, in expenditure of time 
and money, to stand between the invader and the 
hearths and homes of Englishmen. " Of the three 



S50 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

great reigns," says Lord Wolselej, " when the 
throne was occupied by a Queen, that of Elizabeth 
is best known to the mass of the English people 
to-day in connection with the destruction of the 
Spanish Armada by the gallant Drake and the loyal 
Howard. The reign of Queen Anne will be for ever 
memorable as the era of England's greatest power, 
when no hostile fleet could keep the sea, and when 
the fame of Marlborough overshadowed Europe. . . . 
In like manner, I believe the reign of England's best 
and greatest Sovereign, Queen Victoria, will be re- 
membered for all time as that when the English 
people called the Volunteer force into existence to 
redress the military ignorance and incapacity of 
our political rulers." * The Volunteer movement 
bids fair to accomplish what Lord Wolseley proph- 
esied for it. 

The force is now practically incorporated, linked, 
that is to say, with the regular army, volunteer bat- 
talions forming a part of each of the great territorial 
regiments into which the infantry is now divided. 
The mention of these territorial regiments reminds 
me that among the many useful reforms of late 
years, the dividing of the forces into territorial 
units has had a most beneficial effect in increasing 
that spirit of local patriotism which should always 
run concurrently with the larger patriotism of a 
citizen to his native country, and that largest patri- 
otism of all, in the case of a Briton, his patriotism 
to the Empire. Local esprit-de-corps is a most 
* This was written in 1886, 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 351 

healthful spirit to inculcate, and the friendly rivalry 
between our various regiments which their direct 
association with the county in which they are re- 
cruited has produced, cannot but have a beneficial 
effect on the inorale of the army as a whole. The 
affiliation of the volunteers and militia with the 
regular army, binds together the lighting men of 
each county in so many local centres. 

No army reform in recent years — it took effect in 
1870 — was more hotly contested than the abolition 
of purchase. It was contended by the opponents 
of this scheme that the substitution of competitive 
examination for the extremely primitive method of 
selection and advance previously obtaining, would 
give the army over to a race of be-spectacled stu- 
dents, strong in book learning but weak in martial 
qualities. The idea is ridiculous, though the educa- 
tion of our officers leaves much to be desired, but 
it is obvious that a man devoid of martial spirit is 
far less likely to attempt to enter the army when 
he has to climb the barrier of a stiff examination, 
than by the easy, royal road of a money payment 
down. The abolition of purchase has in no way 
altered the status of the personnel of the army, 
since it is officered from about the same classes as 
formerly, and from about the same sections of these 
classes. The titled and landed classes still supply 
the bulk of our officers, while the abolition of pur- 
chase has tended to decrease the intrusion into the 
army's ranks of the sons of base-born and newly- 
rich vulgarians, a class it is highly desirable to ex- 



352 PROGRESS OF BRlTlSli EMPIRE. 

elude since they are incapable of gaining the respect 
of the men put under them, who have a keen scent 
for upstarts from their own ranks in life ; and being 
fighters, men of primitive instinct free from the 
commercial bias of the ordinary money- worshipping 
Briton, are very naturally in no way impressed 
by the mere accident that wealth has removed these 
upstarts into another sphere of life. 

That the army is not overrun by men of scholarly 
attainments in whom the love of fighting is im- 
perfectly developed, is due to the fact that it offers 
no rewards to the man who has to make his pro- 
fession his living. The pay of officers is entirely 
inadequate to support them, and it is useless for a 
young man without means to aspire to a commis- 
sion, ^o doubt this state of things has its grave 
disadvantages in excluding from the army many a 
man who would be an acquisition to it ; but it also 
excludes the ordinary aspirant from the ranks of the 
middle classes, desirous of entering a profession 
merely as a Avage-earning one.* ^ow this class of 
person does not make a good officer or a good soldier. 

* Mr. George Wyndham declared some time ago in the 
House of Commons that it was a matter of common knowledge 
that living cost an officer £150 a year in a line regiment and 
£500 a year in a cavalry regiment over and above his pay. 
Undoubtedly far too high an expenditure on social amuse- 
ment is expected from an officer ; usage makes it impossible 
for him to avoid this expenditure if his life in his regiment is 
to be at all tolerable. The German officer is studying his 
profession during the time a British officer is compelled to 
dissipate in frivolities. 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 353 

Both officers and men are really giving their services 
to the country. Military enthusiasm, like artistic, 
literary and political enthusiasm, must rise above 
the mere desire, and must not be fettered by the 
need, to fill the pocket. Again, it is essential that 
the army should be officered by men born and 
bred on the land, used to exercising authority in 
their own villages, and skilled in all forms of field 
sports. In recent years young men of this class who 
have not the advantage of being possessed of private 
means, have found ample scope for their activities in 
the various scratch forces recruited for service in the 
colonies, especially of course in the African colonies, 
while the improved status of the regular imperial 
army has made it possible for men of good birth and 
bringing-up to enlist into the rank and file in the hope 
of securing commissions by and bye, a proceeding 
which has had a most healthful influence in further 
improving the tone of the service. I may say in dis- 
missing this subject of purchase that the war in 
South Africa has finally set at rest, although the 
Egyptian campaigns had already done that, any 
doubt as to the class of officer secured to the country 
under the competitive system. The bravery of the 
officers engaged in suppressing the Boer rebellion is 
as conspicuous as it was in any campaign in which 
we have been engaged. 

As to the men, they have again given token of 

the ^TiQ stuff they are made of ; there has been 

no deterioration in physique or endurance, far from 

it. In discipline, though flogging has been done 

23 



354: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

away with, there has been marked improvement, 
while, as between officers and men, the bond of feel- 
ing, I might almost say friendship, is far stronger 
than at any previous epoch of our history. As to phy- 
sique and bravery, the correspondents of the London 
papers have testified to the splendid account the 
British forces, home and colonial, have given of 
themselves throughout the war. This is what a 
Canadian war-correspondent, who witnessed the bat- 
tle of Belmont, has to say of Tommy Atkins. 
** How the British scaled the steep kopjes is a mys- 
tery. They fought their way up yard by yard, and 
orders from their officers were unnecessary. . . . 
In face of a terrific fire the last kopje was climbed, 
and after a five minutes' taste of the bayonet the 
Boers fled." Mr. Shaw adds that he was struck by 
the deadly earnestness of the rank and file. 

And how have these results been obtained ? By 
the measures already detailed and by others. Edu- 
cation has done much, the general education of the 
people. I have said some hard things in the preceding 
chapter, not against education, but against fool- 
ish systems ; among its gains must be reckoned 
that every private in our ranks knows now exactly 
why we are fighting and what we are fighting 
for. He knows that the war is just and necessary ; 
that it was forced upon us by the treachery and 
ambition of a corrupt oligarchy. He knows that 
conquest means bread and butter for himself and 
for his brothers and cousins at home. He knows 
that the Boer has presumed to regard him as an 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 355 

effete creature whom he had only to meet to tram- 
ple in the dust. In brief he has the heads of the 
whole business by heart. Hence he is fighting in 
a cause he thoroughly understands and approves, 
and not as in past years for a cause he did not 
fully understand, and so far as he did understand 
had his misgivings about. To-day the conviction 
has sunk deep into the minds and consciences of the 
man-in-the-street — here and in the colonies — that 
Great Britain never goes to war but for a just cause, 
and that when there is any other way of securing 
that cause, she never resorts to fighting. 

We have, in fact, treated our soldiers since Mr. 
Cardwell started on reforming the army, as human 
beings, and we are reaping the reward. Welling- 
ton's army was a rabble as compared with the 
well-ordered force Lord Roberts had under his com- 
mand. Wellington had to bully and intimidate his 
men into fighting ; the like tactics had to be pur- 
sued in the Crimean war. Mr. Shaw, quoted above, 
pertinently remarks, that the men had not to wait 
for their officers to order them on. Why ? Because 
they responded to the chivalry of those officers 
whom they knew and respected, and because they 
knew that those officers would not order them to do 
anything they were not willing to do themselves, and 
that they invariably put themselves in the fore front 
of danger. 

The army has been completely metamorphosed 
during the century. What sort of an understand- 
ing would such a bard as Rudyard Kipling have en- 



356 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

joyed in 1810 ? In 1810 it would have been vain to 
have counted upon every man in the British army 
grasping the significance of such an issue as that 
now being determined in South Africa. But I have 
assured myself from personal interrogatories that the 
ordinary private understands Kipling ; and that he 
understands that in South Africa we are eugaged in 
a struggle, the successful issue of which means the 
consolidation of the Empire, or in the case of defeat, 
the decadence of the Empire. So far then have 
the sweeping changes of the century justified them- 
selves in the personnel of the army. 

I have dealt with the principal of those changes 
and reforms, but their name is legion. Short service 
has given us an effective reserve, though still dan- 
gerously insufficient in numbers; localisation has 
given us a nidus so to speak in which we can breed 
the soldier in every county ; instruction, general 
and military, has humanised him, and made him take 
an intelligent interest and pride in his calling. He 
has come to understand that he can, on the whole, 
do better for himself in the army than in most of the 
callings open to him ; and that so completely has 
the feeling of employers of labour changed for the 
better as the soldiers themselves have changed for 
the better, during the last quarter of a century or 
so, that service in the army is no bar, as it once was, 
but the reverse, to employment when the soldier 
joins the reserves. Moreover, he now knows, de- 
spite the maladroitness of the Patriotic Fund Com- 
missioners and other organisations, that his wife and 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 357 

family will not have to want while he goes to fight 
his country's battles nor to starve if he should go 
under. Again , instead of being flogged or imprisoned 
should he happen to get too much beer, or in other 
ways prove that he belongs to a race fallen grievously 
away from its lost Eden days, a reasonable fine is 
made to meet the case. In every respect, in fact, the 
soldier has been lifted bodily on to a higher plat- 
form. 

Of course all this improvement in the personnel 
of the army and this considerable increase in its num- 
bers have not been achieved without entailing a 
heavy cost on the nation ; but the nation, that part 
of it, that is to say, which pays, can well afford 
the price. Mr. Mulhall tells us that in the sixty 
years from the beginning of the Queen's reign to the 
year of the Diamond Jubilee, the annual cost of the 
army and navy has increased f ro'Tn under 16 millions 
to 40 millions or so, or to 20^. per inhabitant. In 
the forty-five years between 1850 and 1895, the 
military forces had quadrupled. In the first year 
they were 159,000, in the last year 655,000 and this 
irrespective of the Anglo-Indian army and the 
Eoyal Irish Constabulary. The maintenance of our 
regular army, exclusive of pensions and auxiliary 
forces, which amounted to 7|^ millions in 1850 reached 
the total of 13|- millions in 1895, or £62 per man 
against £44 in France and £41 in Germany. 

It is impossible in the compass of this work to 
deal with the tithe of the aspects of this branch of 
our national advance, but I must guard against con- 



358 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

veying the impression that the progress toward 
the frank recognition of our responsibilities and 
making due provision for them in regard to this arm 
of our defence, has been steady, undeviating and 
continuous ; while I shall presently show, indeed 
every Briton is now acquainted with the fact, that 
much remains to be done before our army can be 
regarded as in any way coming up to the standard 
necessitated by the condition of Europe, or by the 
requirements of our Empire. In this, as in kindred 
matters, we have had hot-and-cold fevers, and paro- 
chial-minded politicians and faddists masquerading as 
statesmen, have succeeded again and again in check- 
ing that progress toward national sanity, which, 
on the whole, has distinguished the last half of the 
nineteenth century. It must suffice for me to say 
now that, exclusive of local forces raised and main- 
tained in the colonies, the jpersonnel of the British 
army in 1898-99 was returned at Y42,421 men, made 
up as follows : Kegular army (at home and in the 
colonies) 171,394 ; in India 73,102 ; Eeserve 83,050 ; 
Militia 139,000 ; Yeomanry 11,891 and Volunteers 
263,963. * 

I am free to admit that, despite the marked im- 
provement to which I have testified, I do not con- 
sider we have attained to anything approaching an 
ideal condition of military defence ; nor is it likely 
that the ordinary methods of increasing the army, 
that is to say any considerable addition to our regular 

* These figures are subject to deductions. 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 359 

forces, can be entertained as a feasible proposal. 
Save in times of emergency it would be difficult 
to persuade the people to pay for this extra in- 
surance fund, nor would it effectually meet the case 
should they consent to do so. Although the rapid 
mobilisation and fairly expeditious despatch of the 
army sent to South Africa has given some satisfac- 
tion, for it is a big business unique in the history of 
the world to despatch 200,000 troops by sea and 
land 7,500 miles from their home, the strain put upon 
the military defences of the Empire has been such 
as to oblige the nation to look its position full in 
the face. It is assumed that we shall never again 
undertake anything in the shape of those military 
enterprises on the continent of Europe which 
throughout the middle ages and the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries were the commonplaces 
of our national life. We may hope not ; but surely 
to assume this in the face of what is going on around 
us is somewhat rash. It is perhaps not likely, as at 
one time we had every reason to fear to be not only 
likely but inevitable, that we shall be called upon to 
defend Canada against her powerful southern neigh- 
bour. The marked improvement in Great Britain's 
relations and Canada's relations with the United 
States, now leaves little or nothing to be desired in 
these directions. But although it may not be easy 
to foresee any situation which would make so great 
a demand on our military forces, outside the British 
Isles in any case, as the demand now being made on 
them in South Africa, it is impossible to forecast 



360 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the future, and difficulties may arise of which at 
present we have no kind of warning. 

I am the more justified in saying this when I re- 
member how incredulous, until the last moment, all 
our political leaders were, as to the designs and in- 
tentions of the Boer Eepublics of South Africa, and 
how completely our Government was taken by sur- 
prise as to their strength, military equipment and 
resolution. Persons who had made a lifelong study 
of the matter knew that these Republics were aim- 
ing, and had been aiming for years, to establish, 
peacefully if possible, but forcibly if necessary, the 
Dutch hegemony of South Africa. But neither our 
rulers nor the people could be made to recognise 
the true state of the case, or to prepare beforehand 
to meet and checkmate these sinister designs. 

At a meeting of the Eoyal Colonial Institute 
held on April 19, 1898, when Colonel E. T. H. Hut- 
ton introduced for discussion the subject of a co- 
operative system for the defence of the Empire, 
Sir Charles Dilke said, that with the exception of 
Canada, invasion of any of the other colonies, call- 
ing upon the employment of land forces, was not a 
very practical danger. Sir Henry Norman went 
further. " In regard," he said, " to military assist- 
ance of colonies from the United Kingdom, I con- 
fess I do not see any circumstances that could arise 
to render that necessary, except perhaps for Canada. 
None of the other colonies have frontiers abutting on 
any civilised ^owerP Possibly Sir Henry would 
say he did not recognise the South African republics 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 361 

as independent states, a valid plea technically, espe- 
cially as regards the Transvaal, but practically a 
useless plea, as the Transvaal has always claimed 
to be an independent state. Perhaps the gallant 
general would say that he did not regard the Trans- 
vaal and Free State as civilized powers, which again 
w^ould be a quibble. As regards the Transvaal, 
there would be much to be said in an academic 
sense for such a plea, though as touching the Free 
State, it enjoys an admirable system of education ; 
perhaps the best in South Africa ; and it is in every 
respect a civilised, though a grossly befooled com- 
munity. Moreover, in the sense in which Sir Henry 
Norman spoke, both powers are highly " civilised," 
in that they are both able to bring into the field 
men trained in modern warfare, and possessing 
every instrument of destruction known to modern 
science. 

Within eighteen months of these confident asser- 
tions what do we find ? We find the northern parts 
of Cape Colony and Natal overrun by the burghers 
of these Boer states. We find that it requires the 
whole military force of the Empire, or in any case 
so much of that force as it would be in any way 
prudent to withdraw from the British Isles and 
from India, Egypt and certain other dependencies, 
is needed to suppress this Africander rebellion. 
Thanks to the forethought of our rulers, and indeed 
to a measure of great good luck on our parts, we 
have so far been able to go to work to quell this 
rebellion without being confronted by European 



362 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

opposition. We have seen something like a rwp- 
prochement between England and Germany, which 
the present writer for one hails with intense satis- 
faction, seeing that an Anglo-German understand- 
ing has been the dream of his life. He says this 
although he is perfectly aware that hundreds of 
Germans are JBghting for the Boers ; and knows the 
whole histor}^ of the German conspiracy to oust 
England from South Africa — a conspiracy nearly 
twenty years old and having numerous ramifica- 
tions. All this, however, unlovely though it be, is 
the natural outcome of Lord Granville's foolish 
attitude toward Prince Bismarck, and to the fact 
that when a young and vigorous nation is " on the 
make," it will foregather W'here it thinks it sees op- 
portunities of aggrandising itself at the expense of 
a rival and predecessor it thinks is about — thought 
rather, is about — to go the way of Spain and Portu- 
gal. We have acted this part in earlier years, and 
are not in a position to criticise Germany. As a 
matter of fact had Germany been nationally and 
officially hostile, instead of merely privately — jour- 
nalistically and commercially — the task before us in 
South Africa, arduous as it is, would have proved 
one of the first magnitude. But that by the way. 

Here, then, a situation of great national stress, and 
one which might have proved a situation of great 
national peril, has sprung upon us, I mean upon the 
nation generally, like a thief in the night. It is not 
my business to deal w^ith the future, but in dealing 
with the question of national defence, so far as the 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 363 

century goes, I think I already see that the lesson 
of the last few months has sunk deep into the minds 
and consciences of the nation. The dispatch of up- 
Avards of 200,000 men * to battle-fields, seven thou- 
sand and more miles off, is, as I have already said, 
unprecedented in the history of the world. The 
number is so large that almost every Englishman 
has a connection, near or distant, at the front ; while 
British subjects in the colonies have come to feel 
the pulse of the great imperial undertaking to which 
our race is committed by reason of the contingent 
every colony has furnished to assist in the enter- 
prise. By these means the martial spirit of the 
race has received a powerful stimulus, and men 
have come to ask themselves, the Empire over, why 
the business of defending that Empire should be 
delegated to the few, why every man within it 
should not take his fair share in providing for that 
defence. In other words, and I am speaking now 
of course for the metropolis of the Empire primarily, 
the general conscription of the nation, in which 
policy some of us have been ardent believers and 
advocates all our lives, should be longer delayed. The 
nation having gone some distance toward providing 
itself with an effective army, and becoming seriously 
conscious of its inadequacy for all our possible needs, 
is showing everywhere a disposition to face the 
issue. A very much larger standing army is out of 
the question ; it might menace freedom, while the 
expense would be crushing. Why then should not 
* 250,000 since this was written. 



364 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

every male give two or three years of his youth to 
the service of his country, and thus ensure that 
every Englishman shall be able to stand up in its 
defence if called upon to do so. It is scarcely 
manly to delegate one's duty in this respect to an- 
other, a system savouring too much of the Chinese 
principle whereby a person possessing means, sen- 
tenced to death, pays another to act as his substi- 
tute. The old bugbears that conscription is against 
the spirit of the people ; that it is un-English ; that 
it entails a serious loss on the nation to withdraw 
young men from money-making pursuits in the 
early years of their lives, are showing themselves to 
be nothing better than bugbears. On the contrary, 
it is coming to be seen that it is distinctly un- 
English to compel — for it comes to that — a small 
minority of the people to do the country's fighting 
for it, while it is also seen that the gain to the man- 
hood and efficiency of the people from those three 
years' drill would be so great that no mere words can 
exaggerate it. The race would be permanently im- 
proved. In these days when statistics show that 
marriage is entered iiito, and properly so, at a later 
date by the males of the community than in earlier 
times, those few years of drill and discipline, incul- 
cating habits of self-control, exactitude and routine, 
would have a beneficial effect on the future of the 
individual, and of the race, which would entirely 
outweigh any supposed loss, personal or national, 
resulting from the sacrifice of a few wage-earning 
years. The suppression of the Boer rebellion will 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 365 

be an incalculable blessing to South Africa, to 
Africa as a whole. But if the war which accom- 
plishes that result should also, as I believe it will, 
bring — not immediately of course — the people to 
accept those responsibilities of citizenship they have 
hitherto avoided, should induce them to stand up as 
a man, soldiers of the Queen, then its indirect bene- 
fits will be even greater than its direct and apparent 
ones. And I would say here that one of the most 
frequently heard objections to conscription is that 
our Empire being disjointed, conscripts would have 
to leave their homes to defend the colonies. For 
my part I do not believe the spirit of the colonies 
would permit this ; though of course it would be for 
each colony to decide whether it would individually 
adopt conscription. Again, in France, a certain 
number of conscripts are always found ready to 
volunteer for service outside the Motherland. 

Since the foregoing was written a few weeks 
since, much has happened to open the eyes of the 
laity to the imperfections of our army, its organisa- 
tion and training, and to justify the contentions of 
that small band of army reformers, in and out of 
Parliament, Mr. Spenser Wilkinson, Mr. Arnold 
Forster, Sir Charles Dilke, that our army Avas not 
organised in times of peace so as to make it an im- 
mediately effective force in times of war. It must 
be singularly galling to these army reformers, who 
have been too generally regarded as faddists, alarm- 
ists, pessimists and busybodies, to find at the eleventh 



366 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

hour many of their fifteen-year-old recommendations 
glibly taken over without acknowledgment by Lord 
Lansdowne and Mr. George Wyndham, and pre- 
sented for national acceptance in a mutilated form. 
But that is the common fate of reformers and en- 
thusiasts born before their time. They sow the 
seed ; others reap the harvest. Patriots, moreover, 
are not troubled by such considerations. Their 
trouble is that these tardy conversions are at best 
half-hearted, and in this case that Government's 
measures of national defence are tentative and 
inconclusive. The reformers, and the greater part 
of the nation, recognising the splendid fighting stuff 
of which the volunteers are made, ask why this raw 
material was not rendered available immediately 
the serious and exacting nature of the task before 
us in South Africa became apparent. The volun- 
teers enlist under conditions, one of which is that 
in times of national emergency they should be called 
out and drilled. Everything shows that a crisis 
such as that contemplated as possible in drafting 
the Yolunteers' Enlistment Regulations has arisen. 
It is at last proposed to give the volunteers a real 
weapon instead of an antiquated toy ; to provide them 
Avith accessible open spaces for musketry practice 
and manoeuvring ; and to give both volunteer and 
militia officers facilities to attend schools of military 
instruction ; but these reforms were advocated 3^ears 
ago by Mr. Wilkinson and others. The mischief is 
that in this, as in the belated decision to provide 
the army with field guns, etc., the ends it is desired 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 3^7 

to achieve cannot be achieved in a day, a moDth, or, 
so far as many of them are concerned, in a year. 
It is now proposed to give the volunteers a month's 
drill and manoeuvring, but the majority of the rank 
and file among these citizen-soldiers are, to quote 
Mr. Wilkinson, essentially men who work for their 
daily bread and receive their military training in 
their spare time. " If a volunteer's engagements in- 
terfere with his business he gives them up, being 
entitled to retire at fourteen days' notice. But in 
case the volunteer is called out his freedom is gone. 
He becomes a soldier ; he must march or be a de- 
serter ; and he becomes entitled to a soldier's pay, 
and all allowances for his family which a soldier 
can claim." The objection to calling out the volun- 
teers, that barracks are ^ot available is absurd, be- 
cause the volunteers could be billeted. The existing 
emergency demands this step at the very least, so 
that we may have an effective field army. 

It is true that at the moment to exact conscription 
might be inopportune as partaking of the nature of 
a measure of pa^nic, and as chilling the spontaneous 
patriotism of the people ; moreover to make what 
forces we have as quickly available as possible is 
essential as Mr. Spenser Wilkinson is never tired of 
proclaiming, for it is little use in an emergency to 
increase indefinitely the numbers of a raw army. 
The Government proposal, approved and recom- 
mended by Her Majesty, to tempt the time-expired 
soldiers back to the colours is in the right direction ; 
men between 30 and 45 fully trained, many of whom 



368 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

have clamoured to be allowed to re-enlist since the 
outbreak of the war. Why in any case commanders, 
mostly sexagenarians, should be considered efficient 
and so indeed prove themselves, while men in the 
prime of life should be rejected as privates, passes 
comprehension. Especially is this hard to under- 
stand when our immediate enemies are men (and 
boys) ranging in age from 16 to upwards of 80. 

Another excellent proposal to offer commissions 
to colonists, militia and volunteer officers, and offi- 
cers of the reserves has been advanced for official 
acceptance for many years. But it seems to have 
been forgotten that the Home Militia Act of 1803, 
an act which is still on the statute book, established 
the right of the Secretary of State to exact military 
service of all or any citizen for purposes of domestic 
defence, and that the citizens should be selected by 
ballot. It is difficult to understand why the act has 
not been put into execution. During the debate on 
the official proposals to strengthen the army, Lord 
Eosebery asked that timely measures of national 
defence should be taken. That is what the far- 
sighted have been asking throughout the last two 
decades, and what the man-in-the-street at the end 
of the century has now been moved to demand. 
Lord E-osebery pertinently said that in the great 
Civil War in America (1800-66), Lincoln only asked 
for 75,000 men in the first instance. A few months 
later it was found that 650,000 men were required, 
and at the conclusion of the war the Northern States 
had had 2,750,000 soldiers in the field. Had the 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. • 369 

United States Government been prepared at the be- 
ginning no doubt, as Lord Kosebery says, half-a- 
million men would have sufficed to quell the* South- 
ern rebellion. Sir Charles Dilke in his British 
Army some years ago says that English folk have 
" a good healthy confidence in their own resources, 
and in their power to meet evils when they come, 
but over-confidence when it leads to carelessness is 
nothing more nor less than folly." This exactly 
describes our national attitude. 

It is not only this over confidence which is 
to blame however, for our unpreparedness. In 
1887 a foreign critic said of our army that it 
was "an army to which peace was a necessity," 
and it is certain, as Sir Charles Dilke has re- 
cently said, that all modern governments in deal- 
ing with the army have gone on the assumption that 
peace would be preserved except so far as warlike 
operations against savages and semi-civilised peoples 
were concerned. Jomini, the great military writer, 
began to write in 1804 and only laid down his pen 
when death claimed him in 1869. He declared that 
the effect of savage warfare was, on the whole, to 
incapacitate commanders engaged in it from meeting 
civilised foes. This has been proved conclusively 
during the present war ; and the fact, well established 
before, must have been well known at the War Office. 
Everything therefore goes to show that recent 
British Governments have acted on the assumption 
that in any case the English people would not again 
allow their rulers to cross swords with a formidable 

24 



370 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

military power, and that the military power of the 
Boer republics was gravely underestimated by the 
present Government. Hence, although our army 
costs, with the Indian army, more than the army 
and navy together of Kussia, or Germany, or 
France, it now transpires that all along it has been 
quite unprepared to meet the armies of any of these 
powers on the field. 

This lamentable and humiliating state of affairs 
throws a flood of light on the inconvenience of dele- 
gating power to the democracy. It is a state of 
affairs which would be ludicrous were it not so 
serious. Lord Eosebery knows that had he been 
in power he could not have gone further ; he could 
not indeed have gone so far as Lord Salisbury, be- 
cause the people were not educated up to demand- 
ing, tolerating I should say, an eflFective system of 
national defence. Lord Rosebery's indignation at 
the defaults and dilatoriness of the Government is 
really indignation at a system. In fact the whole 
of this discussion has worn an air of unreality, 
since it was in the nature of a sham-fight, having 
for its object the educating of the people to the 
hard dry facts of their situation, facts known only too 
well to the leaders on both sides of the House long 
ago ; though they have been unable to act up to 
them because, under our precious system of party 
government, when the real issues dividing the peo- 
ple are minor local ones, the leaders are perforce 
led by the people, and have to wait for their man- 
date before they can act. Both sides of the House 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. S71 

are now really engaged in sounding the people to see 
how far they will go in the direction of personal 
risk, personal sacrifice of time or money, in the cause 
of national defence. A certain section of the people 
has already sprung to arms, but as Lord Salisbury 
sa3^s we stand alone in the world in rejecting com- 
pulsory service. Our upper classes provide the 
whole of the army, navy, and militia oificers, and 
from the working classes the rank and file of the 
service come. The middle classes do little more 
than find about half the volunteers. Now the middle 
classes still have the casting vote at the polling 
booths. We know already that the upper and 
lower classes will face death for their country ; 
but if the middle classes selfishly decide against 
conscription then the knell of the Empire is 
sounded. 

At the time of Napoleon's threatened invasion in 
1802, we are said to have had, in addition to our reg- 
ular army of some 200,000 men, an organised, armed 
and trained force of a million citizen soldiers. Then 
England thoroughly recognised her imminent danger. 
To day, despite the fact that the country is denuded 
of the pick of its army, reserve array, and militia, 
and that from the regular army remaining of 109,- 
000 men, some have to be withdrawn to Africa and 
what remain will be largely inefiicients — youths and 
invalids — and that 10,000 men have been taken from 
our none-too-strong Indian garrison ; despite the 
fact that the Continent continues to exhibit intense 
malignity toward the British Empire, and that 



372 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Russia openly menaces India, a large section of the 
people is still too unimaginative, too foolishly op- 
timistic to see that we are face to face with issues 
of " life and death." To rely exclusively on the navy 
is a mistake ; for as Mr. Clifton Tain ton says, writing 
in the African Review^ the rate at which foreign 
countries are increasing their navies bids fair to 
make the formula governing the maintenance of our 
naval supremacy one no longer of living value. *^ A 
nation of Titans could not stand the strain, combined 
as it will be, with a cutting of trading profits to the 
fraction of a dime." The navy, says this authority, 
must be relieved from the first of its present duties ; 
the protection of the British Isles and colonies from 
invasion, the protection of British commerce and 
food supplies being all that should be looked for 
from it in the future. This, he says, can be done 
by teaching the male-population to shoot, the neces- 
sary teaching could be provided for the necessary 
moiety of the manhood of the country, at a cost of 
two millions a year. Mr. Tainton's idea is revolu- 
tionary ; but it is certain we must in some measure 
at all events, throw the work of defence upon "a 
far cheaper defensive agent" than the navy, — the 
rifle. 

The critics of our army system. Sir Charles Dilke, 
Mr. Arnold Forster and others have been asserting 
for years many things which during the last few 
months have been proved up to the hilt. That our 
military system is fossilised, and that our Intelligence 
Department is starved ; that the army is deficient 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 373 

in artillery, both as to numbers and quality ; that all 
services are starved of horses ; that the War Office, 
presided over by a civilian, is in the habit of acting 
without the authority or even without consultation 
with the Commander-in-chief ; and in brief, to quote 
Sir Charles Dilke, that the War Office has persisted 
in involving the army in Peace Koutine, and has 
never prepared it, or forced statesmen to face its pre- 
paration as a machine intended for war and that the 
education of our officers — and despite the much be- 
lauded Staff-College is far too non-militarj^ and non- 
technical in its character, and so forth. These reform- 
ers are now justified in pointing to lamentable occur- 
rences which go to prove the truth of their statements ; 
for it has been nothing less than the lion pluck of 
officers and men in the early months of this African 
war, supplemented by military genius and by knowl- 
edge gained in the field in the later months thereof, 
that have saved us from disaster. 

As to what will be the ultimate outcome of this 
discussion on national defence in Parliament, the 
press and throughout the Empire, it is of course 
foolish to attempt a forecast. For my part I have 
every confidence that it will lead the way to a real 
system of national defence ; and I use the word 
national in its larger sense as embracing the whole 
Empire — British Isles and colonies. Obviously the 
colonies would claim to have a voice in any changes 
which propose to include them. . . " Adaptability is 
an essential feature if the colonies are to join, for, 
lt)eing untrammelled by conventions, any attempt to 



374 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

tie down the colonial contributions to such a hard- 
and-fast military system as has failed in South 
Africa, would only lead to faction and failure." 
Colonists have proved themselves such splendid 
fighting material in the Boer war ; their courage, 
resource, mobility and elasticity being beyond 
praise ; it would be madness not to encourage 
them to join themselves permanently to a system 
of defence which should embrace the whole 
Empire. 

Coming to the immediate reasons which have 
contributed to our disasters and disappointments in 
South Africa, they may be summed up in a few 
words: Procrastination, unpreparedness, underrating 
the strength of the enemy, over-confidence; to 
the lack of mobility occasioned by the mass of im- 
pedimenta our army carries about with it ; the lack 
of ordnance maps and local knowledge ; and the 
paucity of a most necessary arm in South African 
warfare— mounted infantry. Our tactics were old- 
fashioned, and our strategy until Lord Roberts ar- 
rived on the scene, not of the best apparently. But 
into that, not being a military man or a military 
expert, it would ill-become me to go. As to tactics, 
he who runs may read ; and although the conditions 
of warfare in South Africa are exceptional by rea- 
son of the physical peculiarities of the country with 
its kopjes and boulders and torrential rivers, the 
tactics followed in many of our battles in this cam- 
paign would have failed us anywhere. These mis- 
takes might have been avoided had we put more 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. S16 

reliance in the local volunteers at first, and had we 
accepted earlier, and allowed them a free hand, the 
light cavalry the colonies offered us. 

It was in 1893 Lord Wolseley wrote : " When 
shall we succeed in thinking out for ourselves what 
changes are required in our military system, in our 
drill, tactics and equipment, untrammelled by no- 
tions and prejudices which, sound and good a cen- 
tury ago, are now as out of date and behind the 
science and inventions of the day as would be the 
bow and arrows of the Middle Ages ? We have now 
plenty of most intelligent and highly-educated offi- 
cers capable of modernising an army, but they are 
sat upon by the bow-and-arrow style of generals. 
Their initiative is too often crushed by our ignorant 
and intolerant military conservatism." This con- 
servatism has suffered a severe and we may hope 
fatal blow from the South African war ; and un- 
doubtedly the colonies, through the splendid fight- 
ing men they have sent to us, have been the chief 
instruments in inflicting that blow. 

But as to the causes of our discomfiture in South 
Africa, I cannot do better than let a typical South 
African, Mr. Clifton Tainton, speak. Mr. Tain ton 
knows every part of South Africa and has been in 
the thick of its political growth for the best part of 
a generation. He is an imperialist and a descendant 
of one of the settlers of 1820 — those five thousand 
picked colonists of whose achievements I have al- 
ready spoken. His conclusions are of especial value 
by reason of his peculiar advantages ; and I give 



376 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

them for this reason, and because I have arrived at 
very similar opinions. 

Mr. Tainton gives excellent reasons for supposing 
that the Federal army numbered no more than 40,- 
000 men at the commencement of the war, swollen 
to 50,000 by the accession of Cape rebels and fresh 
auxiliaries from Europe filtering in through Delagoa 
Bay. I think these figures are below the truth ; but 
that is a small matter. He contends that the Boers 
are not ordinarily a brave people ; that they are 
defective in discipline, and that in the last Boer war 
our little garrisons held out against enormously 
superior numbers which, had the positions been 
reversed, would have fallen to our troops almost 
immediately, as Maf eking, Ladysmith and Kimberley 
would in this Avar had the Dutch been besieged and 
the British besiegers. Mr. Tainton ascribes the 
successes of the Boers in a small degree to the 
superiority of their arms, guns, machine guns and 
rifles, and to the fact that their army being com- 
posed of mounted infantry, its mobility was 
greatly superior to ours : in a greater degree to the 
fact that as marksmen and rough riders they are 
the superiors of our men ; excluding of course the 
colonial contingent and the imperial yeomanry, and 
that being the first in the field they have been able 
to choose country particularly suited for their style 
of warfare as battle-fields. But he ascribes their 
successes more than all to their superior tactics — 
their loose, extended formation, and their skill at 
taking cover while step by step they creep upon 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 377 

their foe. The individual man has a chance of 
making the best use of himself, since he trusts to his 
own resources and to his own rifle, picking out his 
target and going for it. The British army has been 
taught to regard precision in volley firing — and 
strangely enough, Lord Eoberts, radical as he has 
always been in matters of orthodox drill and tactics, 
is, or was rather, as unsound upon this as the army 
generally — as the alpha and omega in musketry 
practice ; whereas in all future warfare — this cam- 
paign is not peculiar in that regard — the individual 
practice of the individual soldier will decide the 
issue. Our adherence to these obsolete ideas has 
resulted in our presenting to the enemy so many 
targets, for " the squares, columns and massive 
formations of our forefathers " do actually offer so 
many targets to modern weapons, while there is not 
a shadow of doubt that the helmet offers another 
distinctive mark to the enemy, or that the practice of 
differentiating the dress of the officers from the 
men's has resulted in the abnormally high propor- 
tion of officers placed hors de comhat^ and is inci- 
dentally a convincing proof of the keen sight and 
marksmanship of the Boers. 

It is indeed, as Mr. Tainton says, largely a question 
of sight in modern warfare, seeing that the contend- 
ing forces are separated by such huge intervening 
spaces. The present war has proved that such of 
the townsmen as passed the doctors and got into the 
army have lost nothing of the pluck of their ances- 
tors ; but it is notorious that dwellers in cities in- 



378 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

variably become short-sighted, owing to the sky-line 
being cut off everywhere by buildings. The splendid 
sight of the Boer is of course trained ; but the vast 
majority of the Boers grow up on huge 6,000-acre 
farms, their homesteads placed on the highest eleva- 
tion, and commanding a wide range of vision. 

These are advantages few up-growing Britons, 
born in the metropolis of the Empire, enjoy ; and the 
number of those still enjoying them is, as I have 
shown, rapidly diminishing. The greater reason to 
endeavour by all the means in our power to make 
good the deficiency by giving all children in our 
schools such measure of military drill as may be 
found feasible. Lord Meath has urged the necessity 
of this precaution for years, and as matter of fact the 
"Boys' Brigade" and the "Church Lads' Brigade" 
already exist, and are excellent object-lessons in 
what may be done. At some of our public schools, 
at Harrow in any case, boys reaching the age of 
sixteen years are compelled to join the volunteers. 
The British Government has promised to bring the 
matter before the managers of public schools ; and 
the minister for Scotland, Lord Balfour of Burleigh, 
has urged the measure upon the school boards and 
managers of schools in Scotland. 

In summing up the gains to the Empire likely to 
accrue from the war we must place first and fore- 
most the creation of a body of 220,000 seasoned 
soldiers, men having a full and varied experience 
of modern warfare. We shall thus be placed at a 
great advantage should we be compelled to take the 



DEFENCE— THE ARMY. 379 

field in Europe ; since no country can boast of so 
large a force of young soldiers having experience 
of war. Then, again, the war has welded the 
Empire together. Writing in 1880, Sir John 
Colomb said : " Home is something more than an 
abstract idea having reference only to locality ; its 
foundations are laid in common interests, sympathy, 
and aif ection. A ' silver streak of sea ' cannot divide 
those interests, nor can miles of ocean sever the 
strong ties of affection and of sympathy. Hence it 
is that, from whatever quarter of the Empire a cry 
for help comes — wherever the British flag waves 
over Englishmen struggling on their own ground 
for all they hold dear — it is their own home is in 
danger, there is the rallying-point of forces created 
for its defence. While we boast of armed hosts here 
and in the colonies, whose proud motto is ' home de- 
fence,' they must * survey the Empire ' to ' behold 
our home.' " As Sir John says, in a letter I have 
before me, this expression of imperial faith was re- 
garded in 1880 " as a wild dream," but it is now ful- 
filled to the letter in South Africa ; an incalculable 
gain. Moreover, as I have already said, I believe 
the upshot of all this will be the creation of a co- 
ordinate system of national, that is to say of imperial 
defence, though I am not insensible to the risk, a 
horrid eventuality, I dismiss from my mind as the 
craven fear of " rotten pessimism," that when we 
are out of the wood in South Africa, our old habit 
will re-assert itself of settling down in blissful for- 
getfulness of all our past alarms and the warnings 



380 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

of dear experience, and that we shall allow our 
national security to take care of itself once more. 

I hope, however, I am not too sanguine in dis- 
missing this fear ! Of course the war has resulted 
in the loss of much military prestige ; though, as Lord 
Kosebery has implied, that prestige was scarcely 
anything more than self-entertained, since the in- 
adequacy of our military forces was better known 
by Continental rulers than by our own Government ; 
English governments and the English people being 
accustomed to brush aside awkward doubts and 
fears by appealing to that innate fatalism of the 
British nature, where the security of the nation is con- 
cerned, that all will come right in the chapter of 
accidents. Still confidence based on ignorance of 
our insecurity is worse than useless, and much has 
been gained by the knowledge we now possess of 
the weak places in our national armour. 

For the rest, whatever the war may cost us in 
money it will be well spent, provided, of course, our 
ultimate success is assured. The Matin has recently 
shown that, while France has added to her debt by 
£212,000,000 since 1879, England has reduced hers 
by £96,000,000. So that, as this French paper says, 
we are only spending, as we can well afford to do, 
our savings. 




THH KARL OF ROSEBKRY, K.G., K.T. 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 381 



CHAPTER XY. 

DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 

In the preceding chapter I have not dealt with 
the vast changes which have taken place in the 
materiel of the army because, roughly speaking, 
the development of military science has been confined 
to no European nation, progress has been simulta- 
neous, and that progress is dealt with in a separate 
volume of this series. For a like reason I shall not 
attempt to do more than sketch in outline the his- 
tory of that marvellous growth which during the 
century has completely metamorphosed the fleet, 
changing it so as to be quite unrecognisable as the 
descendant of the navy which won Trafalgar ; so 
much so that the naval heroes of the seventeenth 
and eighteenth centuries would fail to discover in 
our existing fleet, the arm of defence they employed 
with such magnificent results in their day and gen- 
eration. 

In 1800 the Royal Navy consisted of Y67 ships, 
with a total tonnage of 668,744 tons, manned by 
135,000 men and costing £12,422,837 for its yearly 
maintenance. In 1808 the number of ships had 
risen to 869, tonnage to 892,800 tons, the per- 
sonnel to 143,800 men, and the annual outlay to £17,- 
496,047. In 1814 the figures were respectively 901 



382 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ships, 966,000 tons, 146,000 men and the estimates 
amounted to £18,786,509. In 1850 the proportion 
of sailing to steam vessels was 339 to 161. In 1859 
the navy consisted of 573 vessels, of which 271 were 
sailing and 258 steam vessels. It also had 155 gun- 
boats, and 111 vessels in harbour service. 

It was in 1859 that the French began to build 
iron-clads. M. Dupuy de Lome constructed the 
plated frigate Gloire^ which was launched in 1860. 
In the next year the Solferino and Magenta left the 
stocks. Great Britain immediately followed suit, 
building the Warrior^ which took the sea on the 29th 
December, 1860. Although the Warrior was already 
out of date in 1864, it and its immediate successors 
sealed the fate of the old wooden walls in which 
Howe, Camperdown, St. Yincent, ]!^elson and a 
score or more naval heroes almost as distinguished, 
won famous victories over the Dutch, French and 
Spanish fleets. 

As I have said, it does not fall within my prov- 
ince to trace the development of naval architecture, 
or to deal with the rapid and radical changes in the 
construction of our battle-ships which the last half- 
century has seen. Although the substitution of 
iron-clads for wooden vessels has led to a vast in- 
crease in the navy's power, and to a proportionate 
increase in the cost of maintaining it, it has also led 
to a decrease in the number of vessels afloat ; a result 
not to be wondered at when it is remembered that 
each vessel now costs three quarters of a million and 
upwards, ten times the cost of the old four-deckers. 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 383 

In 1837 the navy estimates amounted to about 4^ 
millions ; in 1886-87 they had risen to £12,741,000 ; 
in 1896 to 19 millions, in 1898-99 to £23,778,000, in 
1899-1900 to £26,594,500. The vote for 1898-99 was 
exclusive of a supplementary estimate of 8 millions, 
necessitated by the naval programmes of foreign 
states, especially those of Eussia and France. There 
can be little doubt that in years to come Great 
Britain will be compelled to go on increasing her 
naval expenditure, while the special expenditure 
which has become a periodic feature of the last 
quarter of a century, will probably have to be con- 
tinued, though, should we elect to pay greater heed 
to our coast defences, and to training a sufficient and 
always available body of sharp-shooters, something 
might be done to provide for national defence irre- 
spective of the navy, thereby lightening the burthen 
it imposes on the country. I referred to this alter- 
native in the previous chapter. Meanwhile the 
healthy condition of public opinion as to the abso- 
lute necessity of keeping our navy well ahead, at 
least, of the combined navies of France and Russia, 
obliges the government from time to time to con- 
cede to the popular outcry for more ships. The 
number of first-class navies increases with every 
decade. Mr. T. A. Brassey now includes Japan's 
fleet in that category, and the United States has 
made enormous strides as a naval power since Spain 
was conquered. Italy, owing to financial consider- 
ations, has suffered a temporary check as a sea power ; 
and it is significant that, for a like reason, France is 



384 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

not carrying into effect in its entirety the ambitious 
naval programme she recently formulated. It is 
also significant that every movement toward naval 
efficiency which France makes, is made avowedly 
with a view to a future conflict with England. As 
to Russia, she, in company with other nations, 
Germany notably, shows feverish anxiety to in- 
crease her naval strength. It has been recently 
pointed out that, as touching Russia, it is impossible 
to say what her real sea power may be, since the 
Black Sea, where many of her ships are built, is 
practically a sealed sea plot outside of the Russian 
Empire. 

The most noteworthy development of this con- 
tinental zeal in the direction of naval power has oc- 
curred during the present year in Germany. Much 
that has been written and spoken by German jour- 
nalists and publicists on the Kaiser's ambitious naval 
programme, may be regarded as so much playing 
to the gallery, for it is doubtless gall and worm- 
wood to the ordinary German that his country is 
not ready to contest with us the possession of South 
Africa. So much is avowed with brutal frankness. 
If Germany really cherishes ambitions of by and 
bye wresting colonies from Great Britain, which con- 
tain vast numbers of Englishmen, she fondly imag- 
ines a vain thing ; since even supposing success should 
attend such an enterprise, Germany would very soon 
have reason to regret that she had ever attempted 
to impose foreign domination and her bureau- 
cratic system of government on free-born Britons. 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 385- 

But that by the way. It remains to be recorded 
that Germany is now definitively committed to 
doubling her navy during the years 1900-1916, 
thereby increasing her war ships to 38. Notwith- 
standing all that has been said, I think the British 
Empire may reasonably hope that these ships will 
never be ranged against her ; still it is more than 
probable that in the future the British navy will be 
brought up to the strength necessary to enable it 
to cope with a three-power hostile combination. 

A cursory glance at the navy estimates of the 
century is an instructive commentary on the fluc- 
tuations of popular sentiment as to what constitutes 
effective defence of our coasts, the colonies and the 
commerce of the Empire ; but I think the sermon 
preached by a score or so of naval reformers, of whom 
Sir John Colomb may be regarded as the protago- 
nist, for he has been working to awaken the Govern- 
ment and the country to the dangers confronting 
the nation for thirty-two years, have at last borne 
fruit. The nation is not likely to forget that the 
cost of our navy is merely to be regarded as a 
premium upon our trade, which as we have seen in 
preceding chapters has increased enormously since 
the Queen took up the sceptre of these realms in 
1837. Obviously the general application of steam 
to nautical locomotion has obliged Englishmen to 
revive their confident assurance that insularity 
meant for them security ; nor are the speculations of 
M. de Bloch, who stakes his high reputation on the 
assertion that in modern warfare, the attacking force 
25 



386 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

needs to oatnumber by ten to one the defenders, 
likely to reassure the inhabitants of Great or 
Greater Britain. Before the Crimean war, in 1850 
that is to say, £6,640,596 was all the nation cared 
to spend upon the navy. That war led to a vast 
increase in naval expenditure ; the figures were ap- 
proximately 14^ millions in 1855 and not far short 
of 20 millions in 1856. By 1859 they have fallen 
away to £9,215,487, but the naval programme of 
France, and the almost avowed menace to England, 
brought the estimates up to £13,331,668 in 1861. 
In the later sixties and in the seventies they dwin- 
dled away again, averaging about 10 millions yearly 
during these decades. 

It is not necessary to detail the various measures 
adopted by patriotic and far-seeing Englishmen to 
arouse their country men, and through them suc- 
cessive governments, to bring our fleet up to such a 
condition of strength and efficiency as would sufiice 
to render the national mind so far confident as it is 
humanly possible to be, that the British Empire was 
secure against attack. In these recurring campaigns, 
the Pall Mall Gazette and the Morning Post have 
honourably distinguished themselves, and more re- 
cently the ]S"avy League — the organisation which 
conceived and carried out that adroit device for 
stimulating national enthusiasm, the annual celebra- 
tion at Trafalgar Square of Nelson's memorable 
victory of 1805 — has accomplished a magnificent 
work in this connection. Of course when each of 
our battle-ships is, roughly speaking, the equivalent 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 387 

of a million pounds sterling, and when naval warfare 
depends so much more upon our keeping ahead of 
the times in the strength and effectiveness of mov- 
ing batteries, and the scientific equipment of com- 
manders, than upon the actual man-to-man fighting 
qualities of our seamen, the fact that the number of 
our ships is less than it was at the beginning of the 
century has no relative significance. In 1850 we 
had 585 ships carrying 17,200 guns; in 1896, 300 
ships furnished with 2910 guns. In the spring of 
1898 we had 52 battle-ships built and 12 building ; 
113 cruisers and 22 building ; 15 vessels for coast 
defence, 35 torpedo vessels, 50 torpedo boat destroy- 
ers and 45 building ; and 98 torpedo boats. From 
the latest return issued early in 1900, I find that 
Great Britain has 53 battle-ships and 17 building, 
17 armoured cruisers and 14 building ; 107 protected 
cruisers and 9 building; 15 unprotected cruisers; 13 
armoured coast defence vessels ; 35 torpedo vessels ; 
75 torpedo boat destroyers, and 33 building ; and 
95 first-class torpedo boats, and 2 building. 

Against these figures it is of course necessary to 
put those which set forth the navies of other na- 
tions. France has 31 battle-ships and 4 building ; 
8 armoured cruisers and 12 building ; 36 protected 
cruisers and 4 building ; 14 unprotected cruisers ; 
14 armoured coast defence vessels ; 15 torpedo ves- 
sels ; 2 torpedo boat destroyers, 10 building ; 219 
torpedo boats and 47 building, and 3 submarine 
boats and 9 building. Russia has 12 battle-ships 
and 12 building ; 10 armoured cruisers and 2 build- 



388 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

ing ; 3 protected cruisers and 8 building ; 3 unpro- 
tected cruisers ; 15 coast defence vessels and 1 
building ; 17 torpedo vessels and 35 building ; 7 
torpedo boat destroyers and 6 building; and 174 
torpedo boats. To give the grand totals of all 
kinds of craft, they run as follows : Great Britain 
413 vessels built, 75 building ; France 343 built, 86 
building ; Russia 240 built, 66 building ; Germany 
185 built and 23 building ; Italy 206 built, 21 build- 
ing ; the United States 64 built, 58 building ; Japan 
71 built, 43 building. 

I do not know how these figures strike the public 
generally ; but I confess they are not reassuring to 
me. We do not seem to be nearly so far ahead of 
our rivals and possible enemies as we should be. It 
will be seen that both France and Russia are a great 
deal stronger than we in torpedo boats ; though we 
are stronger in torpedo boat destroyers. As to the 
navy of the United States, though weak in battle- 
ships, it has shown that preparedness for action and 
efficiency of the personnel will enable a small fleet to 
crumble up a much larger one devoid of these ad- 
vantages. Italy's fleet would also be an * important 
factor in any general European war ; and obviously 
Germany, which is always thorough, would be able, 
at a pinch, to turn the scales in favour of the side 
she might espouse were the other combatants at all 
equally matched. In any naval war in which Great 
Britain was concerned, Japan would obviously be 
able to render effective aid either to us or to our 
enemies. I repeat that, taking a survey of the fleets 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 389 

of the world, and the number of obligations imposed 
upon our fleet, the position of our Empire is not one 
which a patriot can view with equanimity. It 
must be remembered, too, that in a great naval war, 
even in a greater degree than in a great military 
war, financial elasticity, that is to say, the staying 
power of nations in the matter of expenditure, 
would not count to-day as it counted at the begin- 
ning of the century ; because, whereas all sorts and 
conditions of vessels could be made available for 
warfare then, nowadays the nation which pos- 
sessed the last effective iron-clad afloat would be able 
to place all unarmoured craft hors de combat, thereby 
dominating the situation. It was pointed out by 
Sir John Colomb years ago, that it takes as many 
years to build warships and to make modern guns 
as in Nelson's days it took months ; while the use of 
the implements of later-day naval warfare requires 
long training; the knowledge is not to be picked up 
m a hurry. Everywhere except in Africa and India, 
we have sea frontiers to protect, while the aggregate 
sea trade of our colonies and dependencies alone 
exceeds by many millions the total sea trade of 
France and Kussia taken together. The solution, 
as Sir John Colomb has said, of how to protect 
this trade, and the sources from Avhich it comes, lies 
ultimately in the increase of the population of those 
colonies, and the cultivation of our lands over-sea. 

Meanwhile the British people in the metropolis 
of the Empire, depending as they do for seventy- 
five per cent. — I apprehend, taking an average, the 



390 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

statement is approximately accurate — of their food 
supply upon foreign and colonial produce, are more 
vulnerable than those self-contained nations which 
feed themselves ; and statesmen responsible for the 
safety of the Empire have to take into serious con- 
sideration what would be the attitude of the people 
of these islands, of all classes, but especially of the 
working classes, should the stoppage of those sup- 
plies lead to anything like a condition of famine. 
Whatever the people might or might not have done 
in the early part of the century, when they suf- 
fered untold tortures from want and privation dur- 
ing the great war of 1793-1815, they were then 
powerless to make their voices effectively heard. 
Eebellions and riots there were in plenty ; but they 
were more or less easily quelled. To-day the 
case is very different. The democracy rules, and if 
the democracy said to the Government, " Thus far 
shalt thou go and no farther," the Government 
would be forced to submit. At the commencement 
of the Transvaal revolt, a Boer, or pseudo-Boer, sent 
two letters to the Times and Morning Post which 
excited universal attention. Mixed up with a great 
deal of bombastic rhodomontade, there was much 
in those letters to give patriotic Englishmen pause. 
The writer, whoever he was, put his finger on a 
number of sore places in the body politic, and in the 
domestic life of the country. Our upper classes, 
and especially our military officers, were, he said, 
incapacitated for prolonged exertion by reason of the 
pampered, self-indulgent lives they had led. Our 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 391 

soldiers were recruited from the dregs of the com- 
munity, and so forth. All this of course was grossly 
inaccurate. Our upper classes are not nearly so 
self-indulgent as at the beginning of the century ; 
while our soldiers are of infinitely superior quality 
to those who fought under Wellington in the 
Peninsular War. When, however, this audacious 
critic said that the people would never submit to 
pay so high a price for continuous war, as should 
include the necessity of being put on the shortest of 
short rations, and of having to pay enormously for 
these, he made a statement which he had no means 
of proving, but which had just enough plausibility 
about it to cause feelings of uneasiness to patriotic 
Englishmen. It is impossible to say what the democ- 
racy would do in such a case. Certainly the spirit in 
which they are taking the more than considerable 
war we are waging at this moment, proves that 
education has enabled them to understand and sup- 
port a just and necessary war. But in this case they 
have not been asked to make a money payment 
toward the expenses of the conflict. The Republics 
are capable of contributing to the cost and doubtless 
will be called upon to do so, in some measure in any 
case ; while such of the cost as falls upon the United 
Kingdom will be borne by the upper and middle 
classes. The growth of the imperial sentiment, 
and with it the appreciation on the part of the 
people of the absolute commercial importance to 
them and to their children of upholding the Empire, 
might, and probably would, do much to reconcile 



392 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Englishmen of all classes to enormous sacrifices in 
the causes of that Empire. As to what would con- 
stitute a breaking point it is impossible to say. 

Well-meaning but unpractical persons have come 
forward from time to time, with all manner of 
schemes under which the United Kingdom might 
make itself superior to the loss of its foreign and 
colonial supplies. Among these schemes, the storage 
of corn and other staples is constantly advanced. 
But when the evil day arrives, we shall have to 
depend upon the skill or daring of thousands of 
amateur victuallers, who will do their utmost, if only 
for their own sakes, the greed of gain, to smuggle 
food into the country. Should, however, the Avorst 
that we can conceive happen, should our ports be 
blockaded, and the supply of food from Europe, 
Asia and America be cut off — a possible though re- 
mote contingency — then will arise a situation w^hich 
will put the patriotism of the nation to as severe a 
test as it is possible to imagine. Of course if the 
case were hopeless, if the blockade were complete, 
and our navy absolutely worsted, and no chance of 
retrieving our fortunes remained, then — well then 
it would be Then. But in any less case, any case 
which, though imposing immense suffering and 
colossal effort, admitted of our extricating ourselves 
from the toils of the enemy, then I believe that the 
nation would rise to the occasion ; and practically to 
a man refuse to purchase immunity from imme- 
diate suffering at the cost of permanent degrada- 
tion. 



DEFENCE: NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 393 

I have dwelt upon these contingencies of the 
future because, although I hope every year is making 
them more and more remote, since every year we 
move nearer to that consolidation of imperial 
force for imperial defence, which will render us in- 
vulnerable, they have been, during the century, 
often and often, something more than contingencies 
— they have been very real and imminent dangers. 
I may add, without irreverence, that it would seem 
as if a special Providence had protected us from 
successful invasion in those early years of the 
Yictorian Era, when France having recovered from 
Waterloo, we still lived in a fool's paradise, blindly 
believing in the permanence of peace. Our army 
and navy were at the lowest possible ebb. Of course 
the danger was more definite and absolute during 
the few years succeeding the Crimean War, which 
had revealed to France the feebleness of our military 
establishment. 

I mention these contingencies for another reason. 
For many years past, a few far-seeing enthusiasts 
have laboured unceasingly to bring home to the 
people of the Empire the importance of preparing that 
Empire as a distinct unit, against attack from any 
foreign combination. For thirty-two years Captain 
Sir John Colomb has lifted up his voice, and, enforc- 
ing his lesson by unanswerable arguments based on 
the fulness of his knowledge, has begged his fellow 
countrymen the Empire over, to stand shoulder to 
shoulder, and by united action and common help to 
make themselves invulnerable against attack. Sir 



394 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

John Colomb has of course had many fellow-workers 
in the splendid campaign he has waged against the 
slothf ulness and laisser-faire of the people and the 
governments of the various parts of the Empire ; 
the names of Sir Charles ISTugent, Lord Brassey, Mr. 
T. A. Brassey, Mr. Arnold Forster, Admiral Colomb, 
General Sir Bevan Edwards, Mr. Spenser Wilkin- 
son, Mr. H. W. Wilson and Mr. Arnold White, leap 
to the mind. And as concerning the whole question, 
naval and military defence, the name of the Duke 
of Cambridge must be included. I have heard the 
Duke over and over again, speak in words of solemn 
warning of the dangers of relying upon our array 
and navy as absolute guarantees against invasion. 
His Koyal Highness has always insisted that it was 
a question of being prepared to pay, either in one's 
proper person, or in money, to obtain that security 
for the Empire so necessary to its healthy life. " If 
you live in security," he has said, '* you can do any- 
thing you like — whether it be in commerce or trade 
or manufacture." But as I have said, Sir John 
Colomb will go down to posterity as the protagonist 
of this movement. I have in mind a memorable 
address read by Sir John Colomb before the Koyal 
United Service Institution, to an audience which 
included the Prince of Wales and the Duke of 
Cambridge. It was then that the Duke gave utter- 
ance to the words quoted above. This was in the 
great Colonial year, 1886, and this paper, while it 
ei^itomised all that Sir John had previously written 
and said on the study of his lifetime— Imperial 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 396 

Federation for naval and military defence — sounded 
a note which has since echoed through the length 
and breadth of the land, the Empire, that is to say ; 
and will go on sounding until Great Britain and her 
daughter nations have provided themselves with a 
system of common defence which shall render them 
unassailable. 

Sir John Colomb contended, and he is still con- 
tending, that " all territories, all industries, all man- 
ufactures, all interests and all peoples under our one 
flag make up a union of common war risks against 
which general insurance must be paid, and joint 
precautions taken," and that they can only be 
met with success by cooperation and joint action 
between the several parts of the Empire upon a 
settled system and a developed plan. He points 
out that an outlying empire, with its many hundred 
millions' worth of goods on the sea during any 
year, is most directly concerned in the locking up 
of hostile fleets on the outbreak of war. He asks us 
to remember that the trade of British ITorth Amer- 
ica and South Africa together, was (1886) about 
equal to the total trade of England when St. Vin- 
cent was fought ; and that the sea commerce of 
Australasia alone exceeds by tens of millions the sea 
trade of the United Kingdom when JS^elson tri- 
umphed at Trafalgar. The freedom of a nation's 
fleet depends primarily upon the number and gen- 
eral distribution of ports available for coaling, dock- 
ing and refitting. It is therefore of the utmost 
moment that all British ports of importance, at 



396 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

home and abroad, should be secure from attack. 
The Empire's ability to do this rapidly is a question 
of cooperation between its several parts, involving 
joint expenditure and common naval and military 
reserves of force and of supplies. " Development," 
says Sir John Colomb, " of the infinite food-produc- 
ing capabilities of our Empire beyond the sea, really 
corresponds to an increase of our defensive power. 
It may for the foregoing reasons be considered as 
part and parcel of the question how to secure a 
maximum of safety with a minimum of naval ex- 
penditure. Its solution lies in the increase of popu- 
lation in our own colonies, and the cultivation of our 
own lands over sea. Cooperation between the Mother 
Country and the colonies to produce this result, 
would be of infinite advantage to both." 

Sir John Colomb very properly reminds us that 
to hoist the Union Jack on islands or mainlands 
will not suffice us, if we are not in a position to 
pull down hostile flags when the day of trouble 
comes, and that this end is to be gained only by co- 
operation, by arrangements made beforehand be- 
tween the governments of the kingdom and the 
over-sea colonies in conjunction with the military 
and naval authorities. He reminds us that while 
most of the ports of Australasia are secured against 
sea attack by local means, some of our great com- 
mercial ports at home are not ; and he asks whether 
any one is simple enough to think that a defensive 
system adapted to the ancient necessities of our 
island can be effective when that island has grown 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 397 

into an empire and overspread the world, with a 
sea trade which represents about one-third of the 
whole world's interchange by land and sea, and 
helpless ships, carrying about 70 to 80 per cent, 
of the world's trade, to protect in time of war. To 
provide, then, for the effective defence of all this trade 
and shipping, and for the coasts — and the coasts, 
of course, include the hinterlands of our various col- 
onies and dependencies — is a duty the four hun- 
dred or so millions inhabiting the Empire owe to 
themselves ; a duty which those persons who are 
able to see farthest ahead, and especially those 
persons who, seeing, are in a position to take the 
initiative, owe to the Empire. 

Sir John Colomb remarks that since the great 
International Exhibition of 1851, which was ex- 
pected to inaugurate an era of universal peace, there 
have been numerous wars, great and small ; and he 
asks whether in these days, when rifle and cricket 
matches are arranged between England and Austra- 
lia and England and Canada, the gifts of science are 
only to be applied for the purposes of the cricket 
field and rifle range, and to be neglected and un- 
used for want of such an Imperial system as can 
combine British power for British protection in 
war. 

I have paraphrased so far as I am able in so small 
a space, the salient features of Sir John Colomb's 
propaganda, because it is proper to give honour 
where honour is due ; and although I have not 
done this doughty champion of the imperial cause 



398 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

full justice in condensing his arguments and posi- 
tions, still I have done him this much of justice in 
giving his programme of work and reforms as the 
fons et origo of all the other pronouncements on this 
subject with which we are now happily flooded. 
The more workers the better; and assuredly the 
campaign has now enlisted many earnest workers ; 
nor has their work proved barren of results. 

Some thirteen years ago Sir Graham Berry, at that 
time Agent-General for Yictoria, speaking on the 
colonies in relation to the Empire, remarked that 
at no remote period little or nothing was expected 
from the colonies in the way of local or imperial 
defence. Theoretically England undertook to de- 
fend them against all attacks ; local payment for 
the use of imperial troops w^hilst stationed in the 
colonies, and a few isolated and altogether insuffi- 
cient attempts at harbour armaments, constituting 
the sole colonial contributions to the defence of 
their own land. Sir William Jervois's visit to the 
Australasian colonies, to inspect and report upon 
the defensive works necessary to place their har- 
bours, capitals and chief seacoast towns in a reason- 
able condition of safety, has led to the adoption of 
his recommendations by the respective governments. 
A respectable fleet had even before this visit, been 
acquired by Yictoria for the protection of the for- 
tifications, and for the defence of Melbourne. Yic- 
toria had spent large sums on defensive works, 
amounting to £1,110,000 for the ten years between 
1874 and 1884, while in 1886 it was spending £250,- 



DEFENCE ; NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 399 

000 annually on defence, which, on the basis of popu- 
lation, was equal to nearly £9,000,000 for the United 
Kingdom. The other Australasian governments 
were also busy in the same work, impelled to make 
the effort by reason of the two dangers ever pres- 
ent to their minds : Attack from a power or powers 
with which England might at some time or other 
be at war, and the menace constituted by the 
occupation of neighbouring islands by European 
powers. 

When the Australian governments agreed to 
defend their own shores, and to provide a navy for 
that purpose, they were most solemnly warned by 
far-sighted persons to look to it that the Imperial 
Government, in one of its fits of economy, did not 
make the existence of this fleet an excuse for re- 
ducing the naval estimates ; a very real danger, but 
one, happily, which so far has been safely circum- 
vented. Colonel E. T. H. Hutton, in speaking some 
months since (April 19, 1898) at the Eoyal Colonial 
Institute, on a cooperative system for the defence of 
the Empire, startled his hearers by announcing that 
the Australian colonies in particular, relying upon an 
unguarded statement of the Duke of Devonshire, 
Avhich, by the way, he afterward explained away, but 
Avhich seemed to imply that the Mother Country 
made herself responsible for the defence of the 
whole Empire against attack by sea, had disposed of 
some of their ships of war and reduced their local 
naval forces. There was very little justification for 
this disquieting statement ; and signs are not wanting 



400 PEOGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

that this retrogressive policy was merely the result of 
the swing back of the pendulum, or to change the 
metaphor, to that cooling down of patriotic ardour 
and watchfulness with which we are only too 
familiar in the United Kingdom. The splendid way 
in which the Australasian colonies have come to the 
assistance of the Motherland in the suppression of 
the Africander conspiracy in Her Majesty's South 
African Empire, shows that they are just as keen to 
uphold the cause of British imperialism, or in other 
words, freedom, in a colony remote from their own 
shores, as they are in the protection of those shores ; 
for in this connection, Sir W. Lyne, Premier of New 
South Yf ales, has declared that that colony is in a 
better state of defence than ever it was, despite the 
large contingent of volunteers which had gone to 
South Africa, since the martial ardour of the 
people has been stimulated, and hundreds of young 
men are submitting themselves to military drill. 

It has been too hastily assumed that the unani- 
mous vote of £30,000 annually by the Cape Parlia- 
ment for the maintenance of a battle-ship, may be 
taken as an indication of the loyalty of Cape 
Colony as a whole. I have repeatedly pointed out 
elsewhere that such a belief is unhappily quite in- 
admissible ; and could only be entertained by persons 
imperfectly acquainted with Cape politics. The 
great majority of the members of the Africander 
Bond have aspirations toward a United South Afri- 
can Republic ; but they are exceedingly anxious to 
retain the protection of the British fleet, fearing that 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 401 

their independence might be menaced by one of sev- 
eral possible European powers were British protection 
withdrawn. This consideration, together with their 
inbred love of throwing dust in the eyes of Great 
Britain, explains the Africander Bond vote. 

Were space elastic, I should like to examine here 
some of those ingenious schemes for cooperative im- 
perial defence which have been put forth from time 
to time. Colonel Hutton's scheme, before men- 
tioned, takes as its guiding principles that mutual 
defence be guaranteed by one and all parts alike of 
the Empire ; British supremacy at sea being main- 
tained by the Imperial Government, and lastly a 
bold and pleasing proposition — which in these days of 
waiting until we are attacked, is most refreshing- 
Colonel Hutton has the hardihood and patriotism to 
contend that the true defence of the Empire may be 
best served by a vigorous offensive — that hostilities 
should be forced upon the enemies of the British Em- 
pire, and the issue fought out upon other than British 
soil. These are seasonable words just now, when 
we need to put our foot down in Persia, China and 
Morocco. 

Mr. Arnold Forster, a politician who does not 

mince his words in condemning the backwardness 

of the colonies in coming forward to do their fair 

share of the defence of the Empire, complains that 

the people of the United Kingdom spend 62 per cent 

of their national income in providing for imperial 

defence, whereas Queensland spends one per cent. 

To suppose, he urges, that Australia is making ade- 
26 



402 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIJ^E. 

quate preparation for war by establishing a camp 
and pleasant suburban picnic is an absurdity. Of 
course these views are advanced in too extreme a 
way, and have been put out of court by recent 
events. But I confess I have considerable sym- 
pathy with them. We have made the colonies a 
present of the Crown Lands, and granted them 
representative government ; but in return several 
important groups, as we have already seen, per- 
sistently shut out the over-crowded inhabitants 
of these islands, who are taxed heavily to de- 
fend these lands from the clutches of continental 
grabbers, which in dog-in-the-manger fashion they 
refuse to open to English settlers. Colonists have, 
however, a partial reply to criticism of the Arnold 
Forster brand. They contend that in South Africa 
and ]^ew Zealand, for instance, they have done 
enough for the Empire in wresting those lands from 
savages. In Canada, Sir Charles Tupper and General 
Laurie are never tired of reminding home English- 
men that in building the Canadian Pacific Eailway, 
Canada has indirectly contributed toward the de- 
fence of the Empire. It has always seemed to me 
that this argument is a little too far-fetched, see- 
ing that the bulk of the money for that magnificent 
enterprise was subscribed by metropolitans. English- 
men living in the British Isles, and that the under- 
taking has proved to be an exceedingly remunerative 
one for Canada and Canadians. Apart from these 
considerations, the contention is a fanciful one. 
Great Britain might as well excuse herself from 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 403 

direct contributions to imperial defence on the score 
that the linking of London and Liverpool by rail- 
way, a work of obvious strategical importance, has 
bought for her a measure of immunity from the 
pecuniary obligations for imperial defence. 

These quibbles are, however, to be deprecated. 
If they were not constantly discussed, I should not 
have introduced them. The real reason why the 
colonies have not as yet made a more direct and 
substantial contribution toward imperial defence, is 
a very simple one. The colonies have regarded 
Great Britain as a rich and powerful parent, quite 
able and willing to pay for the upkeep of her children. 
The sons of wealthy parents rarely show eagerness 
to contribute to their own maintenance, and com- 
monly defer doing so, until they are plainly told 
that it is expected of them. It does not come 
into their heads to make the first move in that 
direction. Why on earth should it? The pro- 
cesses of money-making are not exhilarating, save 
in the case of those persons who, born without money, 
find the excitement of winning it an amusement 
and stimulus which compensates them for the work 
and turmoil involved. The colonies are like spoiled 
sons of fortune. They will not accept responsibility 
spontaneously. But when they come to understand, 
as they are amply proving they are coming to 
understand, that the strain of upholding single- 
handed this enormous Empire, is pressing very 
heavily on the Parent land, and that the taxpayer 
in the British Isles is beginning to ask himself 



404 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

■why he should be taxed exclusively to pay for the 
upkeep of the Empire, while English folk across 
the seas far more prosperous than himself go scot 
free, then they will come forward voluntarily, and 
insist upon taking their fair share of the common 
pecuniary burthen. What they have done in send- 
ino^ their sons to iio-ht shoulder to shoulder with 
the imperial troops in South Africa, is an earnest 
of this. 

It must not be supposed, however, that so far as 
the local military and naval defence of the colonies 
goes, colonists have been altogether neglectful. The 
Earl of Northbrook stated in the Lords the other 
day, that the Militia Law of Queensland, Canada, and 
other self-governing colonies was based on compul- 
sory service. A few days later Mr. Chamberlain 
made the following statement in the House of Com- 
mons : — " In Canada the Militia roll includes all male 
inhabitants between 18 and 60 years who are British 
subjects, and not especially exempted. The Militia 
might be called out for active service either within 
or without Canada. In Cape Colony the Burgher 
force includes all males between 18 and 50, with 
certain exemptions, and might be called out for 
service in the colony or beyond the borders. The 
defence forces of South Australia, Queensland and 
Tasmania include all British male inhabitants be- 
tween the ages of 18 and 45 years in South Aus- 
tralia, and 18 and 60 in Queensland, and 18 and 55 
years in Tasmania, and they are liable to serve in 
any part of Australia or Tasmania. The ISTew Zea- 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 405 

land Militia consists of all male inhabitants between 
IT and 55 years, and is liable for service in the 
colony. Compulsory powers in those colonies are 
not enforced ; only those who volunteered being called 
out for training." The significance of this statement 
is to be found in its last sentence. These Militia 
laws are purely technical and academic ; and excel- 
lent as they are in establishing the principle of com- 
pulsory service, are practically a dead letter. It has 
been found best in the Australasian colonies to re- 
tain a small permanent force to man the fortifi- 
cations, and keep the armaments therein in a state of 
efficiency, and to rely on these as a nucleus of the 
main body of Australian forces which " consists of 
volunteers," to quote Mr. Coghlan's official hand- 
book, " enrolled under a system of partial payment, 
which aifords an effective defence force without the 
disadvantages and expense of a standing army." 
Only in ISTew Zealand is the volunteer system the 
mainstay of defence ; for in most of the provinces 
" the service of those who are purely volunteers is 
discouraged." 

From the tables prepared by Captain Banbury, 
R.A., given in an appendix to a paper read by 
Col. John T. Owen, before the Eoyal Colonial In- 
stitute in 1890, it would seem that the aggregate 
forces for the .three great groups of colonies, the 
Canadian Dominion, the South Africa colonies and 
Australasia, amounted in that year to 78,000 officers 
and men, which if one added the forces of the 
smaller colonies came up to a total of 83,000 men 



406 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

of all arms. These forces are thus divided : For 
Canada the total is given at 38,238, exclusive of Im- 
perial, staff and other officers ; for Australasia 32,- 
019, cadet corps and rifle clubs omitted ; for South 
Africa 6,710, exclusive of Imperial, staff and other 
officers. 

These figures standing alone, though fairly accu- 
rate as regards to-day — I will deal with the altera- 
tions in them presently — are somewhat misleading 
unless examined and defined. Take the case of 
South Africa. Throughout the present war, many 
enquiries have been made as to the whereabouts of 
the Cape Mounted Rifles, a force numbering up- 
wards of 800 men. As a matter of fact, during the 
last session of the Cape Parliament (1899) the Afri- 
cander Bond, which is in power, actually had the 
effrontery to reduce the vote for the force by as 
many thousands of pounds as to practically render 
it non-existent. I remember calculating at the time, 
that the saving on this count would more than cover 
the vote, £30,000 per annum, for the navy ; or in 
other words, if my memory serves me, the reduction 
was for upwards of £40,000. Meanwhile the forma- 
tion of Eifle Clubs, almost entirely composed of up- 
country farmers, in other words disloyal and conspir- 
ing Dutchmen, was encouraged by the Africander 
Ministry. Significant enough ! I find that in 1896, 
the last year in which statistics are available to me, 
the authorised strength of the Volunteer and Cadet 
Corps of Cape Colony was 6,865 men, while the ac- 
tual total was 1000 less than that number. Of 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 407 

course to-day the force is double if not treble the 
above total ; for at last fresh volunteer corps have 
been and are being enrolled, but it is known that the 
Cape Premier, Mr. Schreiner, giving as his justifica- 
tion the risk of provoking civil war in the Colony, 
discouraged, if he did not actually prohibit, the en- 
listment of volunteers. It is a fact, though, as Mr. 
Chamberlain stated, and one that must not be lost 
sight of, that every able-bodied man in the Colony 
between the ages of 18 and 50 is liable, on an emer- 
gency, for military service. Between 1893 and 1895, 
during the Ehodes Ministry, there had been a steady 
increase in the volunteer force : the figures being 
for the Cape Kifles, 479, 656 and 741 respectively, 
and for the Cape Police 961, 1,169 and 1,262. 

It is impossible to say with certainty what the ac- 
tual volunteer force of the Colony of Natal is at this 
moment ; but it must be far above the figures given 
in 1897, when the Mounted Police numbered about 
260 officers and men, and the Yolunteer Corps nearly 
2,000 officers and men. Katal has shown the fine 
stuff British colonists are made of; and at the 
time of writing it may be confidently asserted that 
a very high percentage of the manhood of the 
Colony is in the field, fighting against Joubert and 
his army. 

The latest figures available for the seven colonies 
of Australasia (1897) give the total at about 28,000, 
including civilian rifle clubs, and naval volunteer 
artillery ; but not including the Cadet Corps, consist- 
ing of youths attending school, who, to quote Mr. 



408 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

Coghlan, are " taught the use of arms so as to fit 
them, on reaching manhood, for talking a patriotic 
share in the defence of their country." In 1898, at 
a meeting of the Koyal Colonial Institute, Sir Saul 
Samuel, for many years Agent-General for New 
South Wales, stated that he had read in a news- 
paper that 50,000 men were encamped within a few 
miles of Sydney for Easter manoeuvres. This obser- 
vation evoked from General Sir Henry Norman 
the reply that the total force which could be got to- 
gether in the camp from the whole of Australia 
would not approach 50,000 men ; while he questioned 
whether there were arms for that number. In any 
case, whatever the actual force, each Australian 
colony has supplied a magnificent contingent of 
finely built and trained men for the army in South 
Africa ; and they have already done splendid service 
there. Those who saw the New South Wales Lan- 
cers, when they visited this country, and we may 
accept them as a sample of the whole, felt confident 
that the Australian contingents would give a good 
account of themselves. And they have given it. 

As to Canada, it would seem from the official re- 
turns that the sedentary militia, which is stated by 
Colonel Walker Powell, in his article on " The Mili- 
tia System of Canada " (" Canada : An Encyclo- 
paedia "), to have been with the active militia 694,008 
men in 1871, when Fenian invasions were repeatedly 
threatened, still exists on paper. In any case, all men 
up to the age of 60 are technically liable to military 
service. In Great Britain the idea is prevalent that 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 409 

the Canadian Militia numbers something like three- 
quarters of a million men. This sedentary militia 
was formed in 1851. In 1861 the active militia was 
11,962 and in 1863, 25,000. In 1869, the regular 
army, which stood at 13,185 men, was diminished by 
3,592 men. In . 1889, the active militia numbered 
37,474 ; in 1892, 37,613 ; in 1894, 38,054. The num- 
bers for 1899-1900 are given as follows: Permanent 
militia, 986 men ; active militia, 36,650 men, and the 
expense of maintenance at, roughl}^ 1,700,000 dollars. 
Canada possesses a very good military college at 
Kingston, and a number of commissions in the reg- 
ular army are given to cadets who have passed 
through that college. It is proposed to increase this 
number. I believe I am right in saying that the 
battalions Canada has sent to cooperate with the 
Imperial troops in South Africa, were not composed 
mainly of existing militia regiments, but were re- 
cruited specially in the Dominion. 

"With the military forces of the smaller colonies, 
I need not deal ; but I may say that on the whole, 
considering all the conditions, the fact that our col- 
onies possess something like 80,000 regular troops, 
or militia, perhaps I should say, is a highly creditable 
one. That Canada, which in 1776 and again in 1812 
made such splendid exertions to preserve its inde- 
pendence and its connection with the British Crown, 
still thinks more of her land than of her sea de- 
fences, still has an eye on the possible attention of 
too pressing a character on the part of her southern 
neighbour, is not surprising. Canada has done com- 



410 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

parativel}^ little toward providing for coast defences, 
and nothing in the direction of founding a navy. 
This shows that the most important over-sea province 
of the Empire still looks to the Mother Country for 
protection against European aggression. So in the 
main do all the other colonies, though Australasia is 
doing her part in her own waters, a stipulation as 
concerning the employment of her fleet to which 
she would scarcely adhere could her navy be made 
more effective against the enemies of the Empire 
elsewhere ; for, as Sir Graham Berry said some years 
ago, who can estimate the loss involved, not only 
to Australia but to the whole Empire, in ever so 
brief a period of disaster, to the Imperial navy ? Any 
amount of money timely expended in preparation, 
would be insignificant compared with this possible 
calamity. The action of Australasia in contributing 
as she does £126,000 yearly for the maintenance of 
five fast cruisers and two torpedo gunboats in Aus- 
tralasian waters, is therefore much to be applauded. 
This brings me back to the point from which I 
started. I have shown how radical the change has 
been in the British navy during the last few years 
of the century. In 1885-6 we expended £12,660,569 
upon it. We now spend something like double that 
amount, exclusive of supplemental estimates, which, 
as I have said, have come to stay. It is a pity that 
we should have to sound the alarum periodically in 
order to get the navy into anything near a reason- 
able condition of invulnerability. I cannot say that 
I think we are in that reasonable condition at this 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 4ll 

moment. Sir Charles Dilke says that the enormous 
expense of our navy and army would have frightened 
our ancestors. How so ? He forgets that an infinite- 
ly poorer, and much smaller population spent some- 
thing like £1,000,000,000, exclusive of the debt in- 
curred, between 1793 and 1815 on the Great War. 

In any case we now get better value for our money. 
Periodically we are made to rub our eyes at reve- 
lations of jobbery, carelessness and the rest in regard 
to the navy, its architecture, its equipment and its 
administration ; the alleged purloining of the code of 
signals being the last great scandal. What has oc- 
curred in regard to our War Ofl&ce lately, naturally 
makes us suspicious and anxious regarding the 
Admiralty. But as touching these scandals and 
lapses, does any one suppose that if as full a light 
played on the French and Kussian navy as plays 
on ours, either would be found to be freer from 
offence ? Our naval architects and engineers strain 
every nerve to keep abreast of the times. The 
French are for the moment ahead of us in the mat- 
ter of submarine boats, though the advantage is 
a disputed one. Nor must we forget the vast 
improvement which has taken place in manning 
the fleet. In the early part of the century im- 
pressment was general ; and often enough prisoners 
were liberated from captivity to serve on board His 
Majesty's ships. As in the army, ihepersonnel of the 
service has greatly improved. The men are better 
paid, clothed and fed ; better cared for generally. 
In sickness they are tenderly nursed, in health they 



412 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

are treated as intelligent human beings, requiring 
humane consideration and rational amusement. We 
have an effective naval reserve, a fine body of artil- 
lery volunteers, and admirable training ships. The 
instruction of officers has advanced considerably ; but 
the number of officers and men is insufficient. The 
improvement in technical matters may be left to the 
author of the volume dealing with this subject. All 
the world knows they have been stupendous. 

Great as has been the improvement in the person- 
nel and materiel of our army and navy during the 
century, and decided as the progress during the past 
quarter of a century toward an organised system of 
imperial defence, there is still much to be accom- 
plished. Throughout the century an absurd jeal- 
ous}^ — apart from the question of loaves and fishes, 
from which point of view the jealousy is lamentable, 
though scarcely absurd — has existed between the 
army and navy, a jealousy which has often paralysed 
action, and prevented progress, resulting in both 
services suffering."^ As a private matter they de- 
served to suffer ; but, unfortunately, the public has 
been exposed to serious risks in consequence of this 
game of cross purposes. It is only fair to say that 
recent years have seen an abatement of this mis- 
chievous rivalry, and that healthy emulation is tak- 
ing its place. Nothing could tend so materially to 
obliterate the scandal altogether, as the federation 
of all our defensive-offensive forces throughout the 
Empire. 

* The snubbing of the Royal Marines, a most useful service, 
is another scandal. 



DEFENCE : NAVAL AND COLONIAL. 413 

Our various trade routes represent something like 
90,000 miles of communication ; and in their defence 
we need more coaling stations, even if by happy ac- 
cident we have possessed ourselves of the bare mini- 
mum essential for our purpose. Our Mediterranean 
route to India gives us coaling stations at Gibraltar, 
Malta, Cyprus, the Suez Canal and Aden. Yet 
during the century we have heard the jug-jug cry 
that Gibraltar should be given up to Spain. For- 
tunately we may hope that we have heard the last 
of this sentimental nonsense. Our route to India 
via the Cape gives several houses of call on the West 
Coast ; a fact which ought in itself to silence those 
superficial critics who ask why we should retain 
these fever-haunted shores. It is certainly unfor- 
tunate that we allowed France to take Madagascar, 
which really was ours by all moral right, and was 
as clearly a natural appanage of our South African 
Empire. We have now only Mauritius and its de- 
pendencies, certain small islands scattered over the 
Indian Ocean, between the Cape and our Indian 
Empire, though in this connection Zanzibar must 
not, of course, be forgotten. 

I must say in conclusion that the serious struggle 
in which we are now engaged with the rebellious 
Boers of South Africa, has administered a much 
needed tonic and stimulant to our countrymen the Em- 
pire over. It has brought the people to look at, and 
to begin to understand, those far-reaching questions 
of imperial safety and national insurance, which the 
few have seen and understood for years, and have 



4-14: PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

vamly striven to impress upon their fellow-citizens. 
The supineness which formerly characterised the 
introduction to a mixed company of such matters as 
imperial defence, has given place to a healthy inter- 
est ; and as the century closes, we are in a fair way 
to the recognition of those dangers to our corporate 
existence and continued prosperity which have 
hitherto been dismissed as the nervous spasms of 
the alarmist. With the recognition of these dangers 
is coming a determined resolution to face them. It 
may, let us hope, be safely assumed that we mean 
henceforth to meet our enemies in the gate. 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 415 



CHAPTEE XYI. 

THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIEE. 

It has happened, and there is a certain irony of 
fate about the circumstance, that the last few months 
of the penultimate year of the century, and the 
earlier months of the latest year of all, have seen 
the British Empire in the throes of a struggle with 
the Boer Kepublics of South Africa, of such unex- 
pected difficulty and duration, that at one time it 
was not possible for the informed Briton, however 
self-respecting, to feel sure of the ultimate issue. 
Failure to bring these petty communities — it is ab- 
surd to call them states — to absolute and complete 
submission, meant and means, the break up and ruin 
of the Empire, by which I would say that the Em- 
pire, as a distinct entity, could never survive the 
blow, moral and material, of such a confession of 
weakness. The full appreciation of this fact was 
somewhat late in coming, but it has, perhaps we may 
say, come now ; but so far as my particular duty is 
concerned, this unhappy contest, with its humili- 
ating tale of errors of omission and commission, and 
its revelation of incompetence in high places, has 
greatly complicated my task, since, before the 
pressure of public opinion and action on the part of 
the metropolis and the provinces of the Empire, had 



416 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

stiffened the back of the Government, it was, as I 
have said, impossible for the most ardent believer 
in the British race and the British Empire to feel 
entire confidence as to the future. Even now it is 
impossible to feel certain as to the morrow. Every 
day made it more and more obvious that the French 
were spoiling for a fight, the military party appar- 
entl}^ deterred from throwing down the gauntlet 
only by considerations of an immediately prudential 
character as touching the welfare of the Exhibition, 
and by the fact that the conspiracy to undermine the 
power of the Shereef in Morocco is not yet ripe. 
\Vc were, too, face to face with that other conspiracy 
of the Africander Bond and its English allies, the 
Little Englanders and Conciliation Committees, the 
men really responsible for the war, and who are now 
working in unison to rob the British Empire of the 
fruits of its serious sacrifices in men and in treasure. 
As to the aforesaid mistakes of omission and com- 
mission in the conduct of the war, I have already, in 
previous chapters, said what was necessary. I have 
only to add here that although I am writing before 
the war has been brought to a close, and before the 
publication of an authoritative announcement on the 
part of the Government as to the terms of the final 
settlement, I am inwardly convinced that our rulers 
are of the same mind as the vast majority of their 
countrymen, and are determined that the best blood 
of the nation shall not be sacrificed for naught ; and 
assuredly if any settlement were arrived at which 
fell short of the absolute submission and elimination 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 417 

of the Boer Eepublics, the war would not only be 
barren of beneficial results, but the prelude to 
another bloody war, and only too possible national 
disaster in the future."^ 

The colonists, too, must be considered. Their 
splendid services — it is scarcely too much to say that 
they have pointed out the way to subdue the Boers 
— entitle them to the fullest consideration. Woe 
betide the Empire if the wishes, the just and legiti- 
mate wishes, of the colonists are not given the ut- 
most measure of consideration. They would never 
forgive the imperial authorities if there should be 
any paltering with the momentous issues coming 
up for settlement. Our failure to subdue the Boers 
would have meant a death-blow to the imperial idea ; 
for Great Britain would have no longer occupied the 
position, even, of a first-rate power. Similarly, any 
weak-kneedness about the settlement would mean 
nothiug less. The colonies are fighting for Great 
Britain, not only because blood is thicker than 
water, but because they regard Great Britain as the 
nucleus of a World-Empire, grandly powerful and 
benignly beneficent, an Empire to belong to which 
is an honour, and from which they can look for pro- 
tection in the hour of their need ; an Empire ready 
to hold up the banner of the British race before the 
whole world, and to defend it where and when it 
should be assailed. Should they be disappointed in 
the Motherland, sentiments of pride and affection 

* Since the above was written satisfactory assurances have 
been given by Lord Salisbury, and by the votes at the polls. 
27 



418 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

will give place to feelings of disgust and contempt. 
But as I have already said, with Lord Salisbury at 
the Foreign Office, Mr. Chamberlain at the Colonial 
Office, Sir Alfred Milner in diplomatic and Lord 
Kitchener in military command at the Cape, the most 
apprehensive and nervous among us have no cause 
to fear for the future. 

The value of South Africa to the Empire is ob- 
viously by no means to be measured by its individual 
value, great and growing though that value be. 
Strategically, geographically and commercially it is 
the keystone of the Empire. It is absolutely neces- 
sary that we should hold it, in order to guard and 
secure our trade routes to India, Australia, and the 
great and growing inter- colonial trade between the 
Cape and Canada on the one hand, and the Cape 
and the Antipodes on the other. For reasons al- 
ready indicated, I have postponed dealing with the 
rise and progress of this great and supremely inter- 
esting dependency until the rest of my task was dis- 
charged. It happens that I have been more closely 
associated with this portion of Her Majesty's Em- 
pire than any other ; but not for that reason, but 
because no student of imperial politics can blind 
himself to the fact that South Africa is the pivot of 
the whole system, I must deal, more or less fully with 
its history during the century, though the fact that 
the complete story is in the hands of the man of all 
others most competent to tell it. Professor Theal, 
relieves me from the necessity of treating any issues 
save those of primary imperial significance. 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 419 

It is a curious fact that although the area of the 
British Empire has increased sixfold during the 
century, almost all the developments which have 
taken place since the year 1800 may be regarded as 
expansions of the germs then in existence. In other 
words the Empire was founded, so far as the nucleus 
of its several great groups is concerned, prior to 
1801. This is true at all events of the American, 
Asian and Australasian groups ; and although it is 
not strictly true of the South African colonies, it 
must be remembered that we actually possessed the 
Cape of Good Hope in 1801, for we seized it in 1795 
and did not relinquish it until 1803, when under the 
provisions of the Treaty of Amiens we surrendered 
it to the Batavian Government. The battle of Tra- 
falgar practically put the whole of the colonies held 
by continental nations at our mercy ; though we 
made exceedingly moderate use of our opportunities. 
But the Cape of Good Hope, always regarded as a 
desirable possession, on account of its strategical 
importance and its importance as a place of call en 
route to India, was promptly re-occupied. Trafalgar 
was fought on the 21st October, 1805. The Cape 
was re-conquered in January, 1806. I say re-con- 
quered, because the Batavian Governor, General 
Janssens, made a respectable show of fight; but he 
finally capitulated after about three weeks' resist- 
ance to General Baird on the 27th January, 1806. 
Our position at the Cape was regularised by the 
Treaty of Paris in 1815, when the King of the 
ISTetherlands formally ceded it to Great Britain ; the 



420 PROGRESS Of BRITISH EMPIRE. 

arrangement being clenched, so to speak, by a hand- 
some money payment. 

It is worthy of remark that our previous occupa- 
tion can scarcely be regarded as a definitive act of 
annexation ; since we took possession of the Cape as 
the ally and defender of the Prince of Orange ; and 
held it technically on the Prince's behalf. Holland, 
however, like so many of the nations we took under 
our wing, did not stand by us, a considerable section 
of the people of the Netherlands actually welcomed 
the French invaders ; and when finally after twenty 
years of exile, the House of E'assau was restored to 
authority, British sacrifices had been too great and 
too prolonged to make the restitution of the Cape 
either just or expedient. Into this question it is not 
necessary to enter. Suffice it to say that no sooner 
had General Craig and Admiral Elphinstone estab- 
lished British authority at the Cape, and General 
Craig had been appointed Governor, than we began 
to reduce the country to a condition of order. It 
greatly needed a firm hand ; for, when the British 
appeared on the scene, a very large section of the 
colonists were in open rebellion against the all- 
too-arbitrary and pusillanimous Dutch Government, 
and had actually gone the length of proclaiming an 
independent republic. General Craig was a man of 
energetic temperament. He had, too, administra- 
tive ability. During his two years of office he 
raised and drilled a regiment of Hottentots ; erected 
forts in and about Cape Town, and what is now 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 421 

Port Elizabeth, and gave a much needed stimulus 
to public business. 

He was succeeded by Earl Macartney in 1797, 
who extended the boundaries of the colony con- 
siderably ; though his somewhat high-handed pro- 
ceedings did not always find favour in the e3^es of 
the Dutch colonists, who often enough endeavoured 
to thwart and checkmate his schemes. Here we see 
the germ of a rivalry which in various shapes and 
forms has continued from that duy to this, and with 
which in this rapid survey it will be necessary to 
deal. Sir George Young succeeded Lord Macart- 
ney, and on the surrender of the settlement to the 
Dutch East India Company, General Janssens was 
appointed governor, and during his term of oiRce 
(1803-06) did his utmost to follow up the good work 
of his predecessors. Janssens was a man of enlight- 
ened views, considering the times in which he lived. 
He issued a proclamation declaring that the Govern- 
ment must derive its prosperity from the quantity 
and quality of its productions alone ; and that it must 
rely for its advance on the increase of general civi- 
lisation and industry. He urged the farmers to in- 
troduce merino sheep, and to grow wool ; and he 
initiated such economic and political reforms as 
were possible. On the other hand, he has been 
sharply criticised for holding that it would be fool- 
ish to attempt to strengthen the Cape with a new 
settlement. Janssens declared that having regard 
to the then existing condition of the colony, he 
coukl not conceive what the existing populatioii or 



422 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

the up-growing children were to turn their hands 
to, as a means of livelihood. It is scarcely just to 
this excellent governor to assume that at the time 
he wrote he had misjudged the situation. We know 
how hard-pushed the earlier generations of Dutch 
colonists had been to keep the wolf from the door. 
In any case the English governors who immediately 
succeeded Janssens, did not make any effort to 
attract fresh settlers ; though for political reasons 
alone, it would have been wise to plant British colo- 
nists in the territories successively added to the orig- 
inal settlement. The first really effective attempt 
in this direction was made in 1820, when 6,00C 
pioneers were introduced into the Eastern Province- 
In sober truth the early British governors had sc 
much work on their hands of an immediate and 
pressing nature, they had scarcely the time to think 
of those larger schemes of settlement and colonisiv- 
tion, which had they been initiated earlier, migh<f 
have exercised a most beneficial influence over the 
destinies of the country by absorbing the Dutch a< 
a time when their numbers were so small that theii 
absorption would have been comparativel}^ easy ; 
though obviously not so easy as the absorption ol 
the French and Italian refugees of 1688 by the 
J^etherlanders. In 1806 the European population 
of the colony was 26,Y20 souls out of a total popula- 
tion of 74,000. It would appear that prior to 1820 
there had been no introductions of English blood 
into the community, save for a few stray settlers and 
traders who chanced to tumble, as it were, into the 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 423 

country. How much might have been effected by 
sufficiently far-seeing governments to alternate if 
not obliterate the harsher and more anti-European, 
not to say Anglophobic, characteristics of the Boers, 
by a process of swamping, can be the more readily 
understood when it is remembered that during the 
early part of the century, the distress at home was 
so acute that thousands of families would have wel- 
comed the chance of bettering their position in 
British colonies had they been encouraged to take 
the step ; or had the way been prepared, no matter 
in how perfunctory a manner, for them. But in 
1815 only 2,000 persons in all quitted the kingdom, 
and in the following years, when the volume of 
emigration grew by leaps and bounds, the great mass 
of the outgoers went to America ; while such of them 
as chose our own colonies, chose Australia and 
Canada, but for the most part left South Africa 
severely alone. To-day the population of the Cape 
exceeds two millions, and of this total upwards of 
400,000 are of European origin, though of these 
probably 62 per cent, must be regarded as of Franco- 
Dutch descent. Had Great Britain exercised a little 
prescience, ever so little, especially during the first 
half of the century, this unfortunate disparity be- 
tween Dutch and English to the advantage of the 
former might have been entirely reversed ; and what 
is more, the Cape might have possessed a white popu- 
lation well in excess of the total of the aboriginal 
peoples. 

The country is well able to support a large 



424 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

white population ; the greater part of the land being 
neglected, mainlj by reason of two elemental facts. 
It has been allowed to drift into the hands of the 
Dutch, whose methods of cultivation, when they cul- 
tivate at all, are primitive in the extreme, while the 
problem of how to store the water which either runs 
thirty or forty feet underground or through torren- 
tial rivers into the sea, and is consequently wasted, 
has never been faced. Still notwithstanding, the 
numerous drawbacks to progress occasioned by the 
short-sightedness of home and colonial governments 
and of the colonists themselves, by racial jealousies, 
and frequent native wars, the increase in the area of 
Cape Colony alone, to leave out of account the enor- 
mous increase in the area of British territory beyond 
the boundaries of that colony, has been sufficiently 
remarkable. In 1800, it comprised about 120,000, 
and to-day it is 290,000 square miles. In 1806 the 
exports amounted in value to £60,000 and the imports 
to £100,000. In 1898-99 the imports were represented 
by the sum of nearly 18 millions sterling and the 
exports amounted to 19|- millions. Wonderful prog- 
ress, due of course, in the main, to the discovery of 
diamonds in Griqualand West, and of gold in the 
Transvaal. 

But in the early days of the century, life at the 
Cape was not a case of diamonds and gold ; it was a 
case of very small beer indeed. The Dutch had 
already developed the disease of earth hunger, and 
by the time the British appeared on the scene, had 
spread themselves over vast areas of territory which 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 425 

they were quite unable, and no less unwilling, to cul- 
tivate properly. At that time the cultivation of 
land in England was, of course, primitive enough. 
It was before the era of steam and machinery, which 
dates from the end of the last century in the de- 
partment of manufactures, and was not applied to 
agrioultural pursuits until the century was far 
advanced. Corn was cut with a reaping hook which 
differed not at all from the implement used by the 
Romans ; and grain was separated from its straw 
by the time-honoured practice of hand threshing. 
It was not until 1823 that Smith of Deanston in- 
troduced deep drainage, thereby vastly improving 
the yield of grain and grass crops. The first reaping 
machine made its appearance in 1852 ; and the steam 
plough's advent is dated some three 3^ears later. 

Remembering all this, and knowing that fields 
were allowed to lie fallow when exhausted by 
crops until nature had restored their capabilities, and 
that the enormous advances made in the feeding and 
breeding of sheep and cattle do not belong to the 
earlier decades of the century, one is inclined to 
ask oneself what particular improvement Lord 
Macartney could have introduced upon the cultural 
methods and implements emplo3^ed — primitive 
though they must have been — by the Cape husband- 
men of a hundred years ago. He is said to have, 
and it is evident that he actually did, accomplish 
something in this direction, since Avithout imposing 
fresh taxes, indeed manv of those in force were 
considerably lightened, he increased the revenue 



426 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

substantially. Of course the money was not wholly 
derived from the tax on land and agriculture ; 
though seeing that agriculture was the sole industry 
of the colony, it may be granted that it had to come 
out of the land in the last event. 

The year following the re-occupation of the Cape 
saw the abolition of the slave trade ; though the 
slaves were not emancipated until 1834. Lord Cale- 
don was appointed governor in 1807. He estab- 
lished Circuit Courts and postal communication, and 
concerned himself honourably with the grievances of 
the Hottentots. It is not possible to justify the 
subsequent arbitrary proceedings against the last of 
the Hottentot chiefs ; still it does not appear that 
the governor was directly responsible in the matter. 
In any case he lost what popularity he may have 
enjoyed with the Boers, as the penalty of institut- 
ing Circuit Courts, presided over by two members of 
the Supreme Court, whose duty it was to investigate 
into the charges of murder and cruelty brought 
against them. ]^o charge of murder was substan- 
tiated ; but charges of aggravated assaults were, and 
several Boers were fined and imprisoned besides 
being mulcted in the costs of the prosecution. 
These facts are mentioned specially, because it will 
be necessary to explain one of the most potent 
causes operating during the century, to retard the 
progress of South Africa. This potent influence has 
been the constant feud between English and Dutch ; 
a feud which had no kind of direct connection 
with the substitution of British for Netherland- 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 427 

ish authority, for the Boers have, at no time of 
their history, cherished the remotest affection for 
their own Mother Country ; it had its origin in the 
determination of the British Government to enforce 
a more humane and consistent policy in the treat- 
ment, by the whites indifferently, of the aboriginal 
peoples, and to compel the Boers to forego their 
claim to treat these peoples in accordance with 
their own extraordinary ideas of right and wrong, 
notions which being interpreted meant and mean, 
roughly speaking, the settled conviction that any 
Boer had and has the moral and legal right to deal 
with any native according to the dictates of his own 
inner consciousness. ^It was not long before the utter 
irreconcilability of British and Boer ideas as to the 
status and treatment of subject races bore fruit ; 
and the fruit it has borne, perennial apples of dis- 
cord, has been borne continuously throughout the 
century. 

The British Government, under Sir John Cradock, 
did what it could, according to its light, to conciliate 
the Boers, and reconcile them to the altered conditions 
consequent upon the abolition of slavery. But the 
Boers were not disposed to accept any advance 
short of the universal recognition of their claim to 
treat the natives as personal goods and chattels. 
Sir John Cradock went a long way, much too long 
a way, I think, from the point of view of justice and 
humanity, to meet their wishes. His proclamation 
giving authority to the landdrosts to seize any Hotten- 
tot child of the age of eight years, whose parents had 



428 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

been in his service at the time of his birth, and to ap- 
prentice him as he might think proper, was obviousl}'' 
directly at variance with the spirit of the abolition 
law. Unjustifiable as this ill-advised and clumsy 
act oi ultra vires was, it had the admitted demerit of 
failing entirely of its purpose ; for it did not appease 
the Dutch in the slightest degree. During the very 
year, 1815, that the Cape was formally made over 
to England by the Treaty of Vienna, in return for 
a sum of money and the recognition of the Dutch 
claims to Java, an event occurred which, although 
it may be regarded as symptomatic rather than caus- 
ative, has embittered the relations of Dutch and Eng- 
lish in South Africa ever since. It may be considered 
to epitomise, or, more correctly, as an exemplar of 
that unhappy series of disputes and conflicts between 
the two white races of South Africa, ^vhich has done 
more to retard the progress of the sub-continent than 
the numerous wars with the various tribes of Kaffirs 
which have periodically disturbed the peace of the 
land. These wars were, of course, inevitable and 
unavoidable ; and so in a measure was the unhappy 
Slagter's l^ek affair. The consequences following 
upon it might have been minimised had w^e decided to 
rule the Dutch with a strong hand, to stamp out their 
nationality and their language as they had stamped 
out the nationality and the language of the French 
refugees in the latter part of the seventeenth and 
early part of the eighteenth centuries. Certain tenta- 
tive efforts were made to establish the English lan- 
guage ; but since they were half-hearted, their only 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 429 

effect was to irritate the Dutch. They accomplished 
nothing. To adopt strong measures to coerce the 
Boers was, of course, at variance with the fashionable 
doctrine of permitting full freedom to all the sub- 
jects of the King ; which, while it was little more 
than the technical or academic enforcement on paper 
of a liberal theory in the metropolis of the Empire, 
was a very binding and operative principle in His 
Majesty's remote dependencies. But the only really 
effective way of making English ideas of justice to 
the natives predominant, and of spreading English 
influence and the English tongue in the colony, was 
to plant English families thickly in the midst of the 
old Dutch population. "This, as we have seen, was 
not done ; not even in the humblest manner. What 
we did was to force the Dutch to accept an advanced 
theory of the equality of all men, white or black, at 
a time when the creed insisted upon was — it is still 
— so absolutely strange to them as to be only com- 
prehensible as a symptom of mental aberration. In 
point of fact, the Boers then and now regarded 
and continue to regard this creed as the creed of 
" cranks." The present writer, scant as is his sym- 
pathy with the tactics and policy of later Boerdom, 
or with the brutal views and actions of the Boers in 
dealing with the natives, does not wish to darken 
judgment by denying that there is much justification 
for the Boers' intolerance of British policy toward 
the aboriginal peoples of South Africa. Common 
sense, supposed to be the prerogative and inheritance 
of the Anglo-Saxon race, is the one quality in which 



430 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

it is most woefully deficient when it has been effect- 
ually brought under the dominance of a catch-word or 
shibboleth. It becomes intoxicated with the name, 
and its headlong desire to be consistently loyal to 
an idea, results in its becoming most inconsistently 
disloyal to reason. Compromise, which in building 
up our constitution has been the essence of its 
healthy elasticity and adaptability to national needs, 
is treated as a thing abhorred and unclean, should it 
attempt to obtrude itself so as to jeopardise the ab- 
solutely unfettered operation of a mere academic 
principle, which, having fought strenuously for ac- 
ceptance and triumphed over opposition, becomes 
thenceforth a sacred thing, enshrined and inviolate, 
to question which in the smallest degree is tanta- 
mount to committing an act of high treason. This 
has been so, and I have given elsewhere other in- 
stances of thfe operation of this unhappy weakness in 
our national character, throughout our recent his- 
tory. The shibboleth of the equality of man, black 
and white, has tyrannised over the better sense of 
the British nation, just as the shibboleth of free 
trade has enslaved the reason of the inhabitants of 
the British isles. Nor is it possible to applaud this 
extraordinary doggedness on the score that it indi- 
cates the backbone and staunchness of our race. It 
is simply a sign of intellectual sloth. It needs the 
force of sledge-hammers — men have to scream and 
cry and shout and thump all over the country, before 
they can drive anything into the exceedingly unre- 
ceptive British brain ; and it needs nothing less than 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 431 

a powerful explosive to dislodge a belief once it is 
fairly implanted. The mischief of this slowness to 
learn, and. reluctance to unlearn is, that so long a 
time is needed to inculcate any truth, there is danger 
that when it is learned it will have become a lie. 

So far, however, as the Slagter's Nek business i^ 
concerned, it is not necessary to blame the Colonial 
Government for the course pursued. One Bezuiden- 
hout refused to surrender to take his trial on the 
charge of ill-treating a Hottentot ; he openly defied 
the officer of the court ; he fired upon the small body 
of soldiers sent to arrest him ; in brief, he brought 
his fate upon his own head, for in subsequent firing 
he lost his life. His relatives and friends who took 
up arms against the British Government to avenge 
his death, were insurgents pure and simple ; and when 
defeated and captured, they justly suffered the pen- 
alty of treason — death. That five of them were 
actually executed, was probably an unavoidable 
minatory measure. But although it awed the Boers 
momentarily, it sowed the seed of future troubles — 
troubles continuous and grave, growing in gravity 
throughout the century. That it was absolutely 
necessary to impress upon the Boers the great fact 
that the aboriginal races of Africa were men, and as 
such were entitled to be treated as fellow-creatures 
by the whites, is unquestionable ; but in pushing the 
doctrine of abstract equality to the lengths English 
and- Colonial doctrinaires have pushed it, especially 
in giving electoral rights to the black races, the 
course of events is surely proving that the Dutch 



43^ PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

conception of State expediency ; and of a sovereign 
people's duty to itself is the safe' and sensible one, 
while the British view is the dangerous and senti- 
mental one. So much in justice to the Dutch. Ob- 
viously I am speaking merely of views as to political 
and social equality ; and I am very far from cham- 
pioning the absolute negation of all principles of 
humanity and equity which, on the whole, has char- 
acterised Dutch methods with the natives ; methods 
often enough accentuated by gross cruelty. 

The tenets of Exeter Hall have been adopted 
more or less in their entirety throughout the 
greater part of British South Africa ; and it is indis- 
putable that the progress of the country has been 
retarded and its stability jeopardised in conse- 
quence. The future alone will prove whether social 
disaster will not be the price South Africa will be 
called upon to pay for allowing sentiment to over- 
rule common sense. 

These facts in the early history of British rule in 
South Africa, and the considerations growing out 
of them, have been dealt with at some length, be- 
cause they are essential to the correct understand- 
ing of the future course of that history ; and tend to 
elucidate the narrative of the ebb and flow of Brit- 
ish influence in that country. It is necessary to 
turn aside from the story of the growing discord 
between Dutch and English, in order to refer to the 
Kafiir wars, w^hich, following one another in fairly 
brisk succession, were so costly and recurrent that 
the very name of South Africa became a b3^. 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 433 

word in Great Britain for all that was contentious 
and uncomfortable ; and the Cape came to be re- 
garded as an almost intolerable burthen and nui- 
sance, a country which drew upon the Mother 
Country's resources, a burthen and nuisance only 
endured because of the Cape's strategical importance 
as a house of call on the high-road to India. It is 
curious to note that the people of the British isles, 
who had willingly disbursed millions — two thousand 
millions in current expenditure and debts incurred, 
in order to meddle in the affairs of the Continent, 
for the most part affairs which did not concern 
them — should have grudged the comparatively small 
outlay necessitated in order to make available for 
the general purposes of the Empire those lands 
which were the principal assets to be set against 
this enormous outlay. In this the nation only fol- 
lowed the caprice, idiosyncrasy, peculiarity — what 
shall I call it ? — of the individual. Men will strain 
every nerve and expend every penny they possess 
to gain a certain end or possession upon whose up- 
keep when once gained they will begrudge the small- 
est future outlay. 

The story of these endless Kaifir wars will doubt- 
less be told in another volume ; and it is not my 
purpose here to trace it in detail. The first broke 
out in 1811 on the eastern frontier, and resulted in 
the expulsion of the Kaffirs from the Zuurveld. 
Colonel Collins, the commissioner, had recom- 
mended that the country should be portioned off 
among white settlers. Colonel Graham, who had 
28 



434 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

conducted the operations against the natives, tried 
to give effect to these recommendations ; but it was 
found impossible to induce many burghers to ac- 
cept the farms, although they far exceeded in area 
the size proposed by Colonel Collins. Consequently 
the Kaffirs very soon made an attempt to re-occupy 
the country, though their efforts resulted in dire 
failure. Lord Charles Somerset ultimately sub- 
dued the confederacy of native chiefs ; and being 
deeply impressed with the country, painted its ad- 
vantages and possibilities in glowing terms. His 
despatches exercised so powerful an influence in 
England, that Parliament voted £50,000 in aid of 
colonising the country, and invited persons willing 
to become settlers in it to send in their applications. 
!Now the significant fact about this invitation is, 
that although the government proposal was very 
far from being of that munificent character it has 
been represented in some quarters, nearly 90,000 
persons made application, though less than 5,000 
could be sent out. 

It would be highly instructive and interesting, 
were it possible for me to do so, to follow the for- 
tunes of these colonists ; I must content myself with 
the knowledge that the story will be fully told else- 
where. I have referred to this famous Albany 
settlement more than once already ; and I must be 
pardoned for referring to it again, and at some 
length, because to my mind it was in itself, espe- 
cially when regarded as an example to follow, an 
event of the highest imperial moment. As I have 



tHE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE!. 435 

said, the inducements held out to these colonists by 
no means erred on the side of liberality. Some- 
thing was done for them at the outset, it is true. 
They were granted land and conveyed to it ; they 
were given implements, and for a certain period 
they w^ere provided with food. Still they had to 
face entirely fresh conditions of life, and although 
the greater number of them were townsfolk, they 
adapted themselves in a manner little short of mar- 
vellous to the pioneer work of fencing in the coun- 
try. In this connection I am reminded of the 
remark of a well-known authority, Mr. Hedger- 
Wallace, " that colonial agriculture is a subject to 
be specially studied, and ought not to be regarded as 
English agriculture transplanted." No doubt the 
success of the Eastern Province pioneers was largely 
due to the fact that they had all to learn and a 
determination to learn it, and nothing to unlearn. 
But the obstacles in their path Avere enormous. Be- 
tween 1820 and 1850 they had to contend with three 
formidable Kaffir outbreaks. In the first war the 
Kaffirs carried off 111,418 head of cattle, 156,878 
sheep and goats, 6,438 horses and 58 waggons. They 
burnt 456 farmhouses, pillaged 300 homesteads and 
stores and murdered hundreds of the colonists, and 
inflicted a loss upon the settlement of £300,000. 
These figures are pertinent as showing the wonder- 
ful progress these plucky pioneers had made in 
fourteen years. 

The losses in the succeeding w^ars of 1846 and 
1850-52 were much greater than in the earlier war, 



436 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

but notwithstanding the terrible drain upon the 
country occasioned by these sanguinary contests, 
notwithstanding the multifarious difficulties which 
had to be surmounted, the settlers of 1820 succeeded 
in overcoming everything, and in founding a prov- 
ince which to-day may be regarded as the most 
populous and progressive portion of Cape Colony. 
The ordinary man would imagine that such a record 
as this, the triumphant success of a handful of men 
selected from every grade of society — men who had 
followed almost every trade and calling save that 
of agriculture, would have encouraged our rulers to 
repeat an experiment so rich in splendid results, 
results achieved in the very teeth of superlative 
obstacles and difficulties, obstacles and difficulties 
which it is obvious would be minimised in subsequent 
experiments of a like nature. The settlers of Algoa 
Bay and their descendants have come to be regarded 
as the backbone of British South Africa. "With the 
colonists of ISTatal, they constitute the first line of 
defence of the British Empire in South Africa. It 
is an everlasting reproach to successive British gov- 
ernments, from that time to the present moment, 
that this enlightened and statesmanlike scheme, 
which resulted not only in helping to relieve acute 
distress at home, and in founding a powerful prov- 
ince of the Empire across the seas, but has tended 
in a measure to adjust the balance between Dutch 
and British in South Africa, has not been elevated 
into a permanent system. The progress of South 
Africa has been remarkable; the progress of the 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 437 

Empire as a whole has been almost phenomenal ; 
but it might have been more than phenomenal, if 
the expression be allowed to pass, had our rulers 
seen the wisdom of periodically transferring the 
surplus and unemployed population of these islands 
to such lands as might be available in the colonies. 
Much more might have been done in this direction 
in those days before the Crown alienated its sover- 
eign prerogatives in the lands of the colonies. 
Much might have been done since those days, in the 
case of several colonies. The selfishness and short- 
sightedness of the Cape, or rather the jealous ex- 
clusiveness of the Dutch at the Cape, and the de- 
termination of the rulers of Australasia, the work- 
men, to keep that huge continent a close preserve 
for themselves and their children, have stood in the 
way of the adoption of any such scheme in Africa 
and Australia. The settlement of 1820 stands al- 
most alone; in any case it is the great object-lesson 
in successful colonisation of the century. What was 
done then, might have been done again and again 
and with similar magnificent results. The oppor- 
tunity again presents itself of repeating the experi- 
ment ; and it is to be hoped that the century upon 
which we are about to enter, will witness many such 
enterprises. The scale needs to be enlarged and 
the organisation perfected. 

I have already said that the Albany, or Port 
Elizabeth settlement of 1820, must be regarded as 
the most important, it might almost be said the 
only effort on the part of British governments to 



438 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

give a British cast to a British colony ; though even 
in this it would be to do the Government too much 
honour to pretend to believe that any such states- 
manlike idea was at the root of their action. Be 
this as it may, the Albany settlers have proved 
themselves the backbone of the colony, as they have 
been the connecting link which has bound it, in 
sentiment that is to say, to the Mother Country. 
We have seen how the unfortunate event of 1815, 
the Slagter's ISTek affair, confirmed the already ex- 
isting: disaffection of the Dutch. The official sub- 
stitution of the English language for Dutch in 1822, 
at a time when the Eastern Province was in its in- 
fancy, and the Western Province, the seat of gov- 
ernment, almost exclusively Dutch, was a blunder, 
not in principle, but as to time and place. This 
step should have been worked up to by a gradual 
process of education and absorption ; no more con- 
vincing proof of its inefficacy could be cited than 
the fact that upwards of half a century later, the 
official language was made bi-lingual. The only 
effect the proclamation of 1822 had, Avas to still 
further irritate and incense the Boers. 

The same year saw another unwise enactment 
added to the statute-book — a proclamation prohibit- 
ing the convening of any public meeting without 
official sanction. Lord Charles Somerset also sig- 
nalised his long term of office by an attempt to in- 
terfere with the liberty of the press. It is necessary 
to remember all these things, in order to be in a 
position to pass a perfectly fair and unbiassed judg- 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 439 

ment on the unhappy events now transpiring, and 
in order to get a sound understanding of all the 
causes which have retarded the progress of this 
portion of Her Majesty's dominions. As a matter 
of fact, this liberty of the press question led to a 
contest of six or seven years' duration between 
Mr. Fairbairn, the champion of liberty, and Lord 
Charles Somerset, and it was not until 1828 that 
the former succeeded in vindicating the rights of the 
press to give expression, fairly and fearlessly, to such 
opinions on public events as might seem to the con- 
ductors of newspapers good and expedient. 

I must leave the task of writing the detailed his- 
tory of what actually led up to the grand exodus of 
the Dutch Yoortrekkers, to another hand. It will 
be sufficient to say here that the ridiculous policy 
of Lord Glenelg, who was almost as unsuccessful 
in dealing with colonial affairs as Mr. Gladstone 
himself, fairly disgusted the Dutch colonists, who 
naturally could not understand that kind of senti- 
mentality, or decayed moral sense, v/hich would 
permit a sovereign race to go back upon its own 
acts, and after conquering a native tribe and 
solemnly annexing their territory, return it to the 
vanquished people with apologies for having made 
a mistake. No doubt there was something to be 
said for the Kaffirs ; but nothing could excuse this 
insane interference of the Home Government with 
the work achieved by the Governor, Sir Benjamin 
D'Urban, and the colonists, English and Dutch, who 
loyally assisted him. 



440 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

It cannot be said that this was the sole or indeed 
the principal cause of the Boer migration of 1835-6. 
The compulsory emancipation of the slaves, who 
under Mr. Buxton's bill became free throughout the 
British dominions on December 1, 1834, provided 
the sum of £20,000,000, voted by Parliament, to in- 
demnify the slaveholders, and £1,200,000, or about 
£85 for each slave, was apportioned to the owners 
of slaves in Cape Colony. There can be no doubt 
that, apart from the real loss inflicted, in many cases, 
on the Dutch owners by this measure, they were 
deeply incensed at what they considered an unjusti- 
fiable interference with their domestic, and as they 
saw it, purely private affairs. Undeniably a large 
portion of the money voted, stuck to the palms of 
the agents and middle-men who undertook to dis- 
tribute the award, which instead of being payable 
in London should have been distributed by the Gov- 
ernment in the colony itself. 

It was this and kindred annoyances and vexations, 
having as their basis, however, the irreconcilable di- 
vergence of view as to the treatment of subject 
peoples, which so exasperated the Boers that they 
determined to "trek" into the wilderness. The 
Yaal provinces, the Transvaal and Orange Free 
State and Natal, resulted from this exodus. It is 
generally held that this " trek," this foundation of 
the Boer republics, constitutes one of the greatest 
checks to the growth of the Empire the century has 
seen. This, however, is a somewhat superficial view. 
The outcome of the duel between English and Dutch 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 44I 

in South Africa is now, humanly speaking, assured ; 
but in any case, I for one have never lost the con- 
viction that, by whatsoever means or howsoever de- 
layed, the ultimate triumph of British institutions 
and of the English language throughout the sub- 
continent was not in the nature of a problematical 
proposition, but on the contrary was a certainty. 
Strength must swallow weakness, and the language 
of Shakespeare and Bunyan must in the end obliter- 
ate the depraved patois, the " taal," which is the 
colloquial tongue of the backward peoples of South 
Africa. Whether the means were peaceful and 
gradual or violent and sudden, the recalcitrant 
Dutch of South Africa had sooner or later to fall 
into line with the progressive British elements. 

Looking at the inevitable result, the Boers must 
be regarded as the pioneers, albeit unconscious and 
unwilling pioneers, of Empire in South Africa. The 
British element in the population can scarcely be 
said to have existed until 1820 ; and after that date 
that element was too meagre and too much con- 
cerned with its special work, the development of 
Albany and Kaffraria, to make it possible for it, of 
its own initiative, to attempt to extend the bound- 
aries of civilisation in Africa. The Boers in leaving 
Cape Colony, were, of course, endeavouring to 
escape from a civilisation which went far beyond the 
standard they recognised. The enforced payment 
of taxes, and the restrictions on their right to treat 
the natives as they chose, rendered life irksome to a 
race accustomed for two centuries to almost com- 



442 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

plete immunity from any restraining force so far as 
their dealings with the natives were concerned ; and 
to a far more go-as-you-please and elementary system 
of taxation than the complicated system introduced 
by the British. 'No doubt, however, what they 
most resented was the Order in Council of 1834, 
which put the Hottentot on an equality, so far as 
all civil rights went, with the white man. 

The Boer claimed then, as he claims now, to have 
the sole control, as an individual, over the lives, 
property, the very souls of the natives. England 
claimed then, as she now claims, justice for the black 
races, humane treatment in place of the cruel and 
barbarous treatment to which the Boers subjected, 
and still subject, the natives. The Boers from the 
first set their faces like flints against these ideals. 
The struggle between Boer and Briton in South 
Africa has been, and is, a struggle between two 
wholly antagonistic ideals ; the Boers have fought 
for individual licence, especially as concerns their 
dealings Avith the natives, while the British have 
fought for and are fighting for corporate liberty and 
justice to the natives. The trend of events, that is 
to say, the development of the countrj^, has given a 
political complexion to these antagonistic ideas ; and 
the war in South Africa has come to be a war be- 
tween the Dutch Africander and his creatures, the 
mercenaries his new-found wealth has enabled him 
to attach to his standard, who desire to set up a 
United Dutch Kepublic, not merely to embrace the 
Transvaal and Orange Free State, but the whole of 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 443 

South Africa — Cape Colony, Natal and Khodesia, 
and the British Government, whose aims are now, 
and have been for a quarter of a century, to feder- 
ate all the States of South Africa under one Central 
Government, all, of course, owning allegiance to the 
British Empire, and as things have now shaped 
themselves, to the British flag. 

The duel between British and Dutch resulted in 
the ultimate discomfiture of the latter in the country 
now forming the British colony of Natal. This was 
in 1842. On the other hand the Sand Kiver Con- 
vention of 1852 eventuated in the Transvaal being 
ceded to the Boers ; while two years later, in a more 
complete manner still, we acknowledged the inde- 
pendence of the Orange Free State. It was a weak 
moment in our national history when we elected to 
recognise the independence of these Dutch settle- 
ments ; an evil day for Great Britain ; and the Em- 
pire has paid dearly for entrusting its fortunes to 
the Manchester school of politicians, I will not call 
them statesmen, for this school was assuredly the 
most short-sighted and pernicious of any school of 
politicians which has ever held the reins of power 
in this country. It was, as has been said, in 1852 that 
the Boers were granted their independence ; but a few 
years later Sir George Grey saw his way to retrieve 
the mischief he so clearly foresaw as the inevitable 
consequence of this State blunder. Sir George Grey 
was not permitted to carry out his scheme. As it 
was, constant civil strife, and even civil war, suc- 
ceeded the granting of independence ; and it was not 



444 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

until 1864 that the South African Republic emerged 
as a single state. In 1876-77 President Burgers was 
defied by Secocoeni, a northern chief. The Trans- 
vaal was practically at his mercy. We stepped in 
and saved it from ruin and financial chaos ; and the 
burghers from imminent risk of being " eaten up," 
not only by Secocoeni, but by Cetewayo's impis, 
who, had we not stood between, Avould have swept 
over the land, and in their avenging flight stamped 
the Boers flat on the veldt. Unfortunately we en- 
trusted the government of the country to a martinet,, 
Sir Owen Lanyon, who neglected to consider 
sufficiently the natural feelings and susceptibilities 
of the Boers. Their leaders and representatives, 
uncouth and unlettered men it is true, but entitled to 
respect by reason of their importance in the eyes of 
their countrymen, were kept dusting their heels in 
anterooms, like so many importunate tradesmen, by 
the superfine striplings, in civil and military capaci- 
ties, whom the British Government deputed to ex- 
amine into their grievances. "We neglected, too, to 
keep our promise, a rash one no doubt, to give them 
parliamentary institutions. Then came the rebel- 
lion for which our conduct afforded some excuse. 
Justice compels the admission. Nevertheless we had 
relieved the country from hopeless bankruptcy, and 
from impending disaster at the hands of Kaffir 
hordes ; Lord, then Sir Garnet, Wolseley had solemnly 
declared that so long as the sun shone, the British flag 
should fly over the country, and to give it up in the 
face of defeat, was an act of criminal folly for which 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 445 

we have paid, as we deserved to pay, the penalty. 
Whatever the inotive of this rash act, every one 
who had lived in South Africa, as I had lived, every- 
one who knew the conditions of our tenure of that 
country, and who had studied its complex political 
problems, knew that we had made the position of 
Great Britain in South Africa impossible, for they 
knew that the only way to ensure civil, political 
and social peace betAveen Englishmen and Dutch- 
men in South Africa, was for England to conquer 
fairly the latter, and teach them once and for all that 
Great Britain was the mistress of the whole country ; 
they knew that a colossal and irreparable mistake 
had been made, a mistake which they greatly feared, 
however much they might hope against hope, could 
only be rectified at a cost in treasure, life and 
human suffering, a hundred-fold greater than that 
which would have sufficed to tranquillise South 
Africa in 1880. 

Then came those lame and inefficient instruments 
by which a feeble government tried to evade the 
consequences of its pusillanimity. The Convention 
of 1881, weak as it was as a charter of rights for 
Englishmen in the Transvaal, was rendered even 
more ineffectual as amended in 1884. The ink was 
scarcely dry upon this document before the Boers, 
who almost to a man regarded us as an effete nation, 
powerless to uphold our countrymen in Africa, and 
mortally afraid of themselves, began to show their 
contempt for such provisions as it did contain for 
the protection of our imperial interests, and the in- 



446 iPROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

terests of British subjects in the South African Re- 
public. "We need not go into the story of the Warren 
expedition of 1884 by which Bechuanaland was pre- 
served from the clutches of the freebooting Boers. 
Though we saved Bechuanaland, Zululand, a large 
part of it that is to say, was filched from the Zulus 
by bands of Boer marauders. Even before 1886 
many things were -done which must have opened 
the eyes of the framers and upholders of the policy 
of conciliation to the futility of that policy. 

The Hand was discovered in 1886. It is urged 
in defence of the policy of Scuttle in the Transvaal, 
that had British Ministers and Commissioners been 
able to see into futurity, and that the Transvaal 
would attract an enormous British population, they 
would not have drawn up conventions, under which 
those British settlers possessed so few opportunities 
of asserting themselves, or maintaining their rights. 
The defence is entirely inadmissible. As far back 
as a quarter of a century, private individuals in 
hundreds who had visited South Africa, knew per- 
fectly well that the Transvaal was not only a highly 
mineralised country, bat a country capable of grow- 
ing anything; and they had proclaimed the fact 
publicly in a hundred ways. It is said that an in- 
dividual is the last person to know in what estimate 
his neighbours and contemporaries hold him ; and it 
would seem that British Governments are invariably 
the last to know in what estimate the countries they 
are called upon to rule are held by the people of 
those countries. South Africa did not know the 



1:he keystone of the empirei. 447 

exact day, hour or place of the gold discovery, which 
has transformed the Transvaal from a province por- 
tioned out into so many six-thousand-acre farms, 
into a country in which farming plays a very unim- 
portant part, so far as wealth, revenue and every- 
thing that goes to make a modern state are con- 
cerned, but South Africa knew that that discovery 
would come. 

However, the discovery of the Gold Fields very 
soon wrought an entire change in the spirit of Pres- 
ident Kruger's dream. That astute person saw 
very well that the Englishman would come in his 
thousands. In 1886 he said that he saw on the 
horizon a heavy cloud, a dense flight of locusts which 
was about to cross the border, and settle upon the 
land, and that its coming boded no good to the pas- 
toral Boer, whose industry would be eaten up and 
his country devastated. In some such allegory he 
publicly confessed, in addressing a great meeting of 
burghers, his fears and convictions for the future. 
Had he seen his way to keep this advancing army 
back, he could not have done so ; for just at this time 
the eternal lack of pence was pressing heavily on the 
little state. As in 1877, and in many a previous 
year, the exchequer was empty, officials were clam- 
ouring for their salaries, and civil war was immi- 
nent. Therefore, although the President foresaw 
the danger to the independence of the state — a state 
he had even then come to regard as his own par- 
ticular tillage, his own creation — from the advent of 
the gold-seekers, his own dire necessities, his own 



44S PROGRSiSS OB' BRITISH EMPIRfi. 

desperate need of the very metal the diggers had 
come to unearth, compelled him to welcome them. 
But that he formed his own plans then and there, 
there can be no kind of doubt. At first it is prob- 
able that he only hoped to stave off the evil day 
during perhaps his own lifetime. From his own 
earlier admissions this would seem to have been the 
case. For it must be remembered that the President 
had been to England ; and although a man of his 
limited culture would not take away very accurate 
impressions of our strength and wealth, still his 
natural keenness must have told him that the 
estimate in which his burghers regarded the British 
was a wholly false one. In any case he formed his 
plans. If the accursed Englishman must come, he 
should come for the good of the burghers collect- 
ively, and especially for the good of the President 
individually. 'No Pharaoh should be a harder task- 
master over the Israelites, than he would be over the 
Uitlanders. By every device known to him and his 
satellites he would grind out of them the fruits of 
their labours ; and as they grew in numbers and 
riches, he would protect himself and the burghers 
against the risk of being overmastered in the Kaad 
by depriving them little by little of every vestige of 
political power. The course of Transvaal policy 
since 1886 is well known. The Uitlanders have 
raised the State from bankruptcy to affluence, from 
the sum of 2s. 6d., though Mr. Eider Haggard who 
had the handling of it, assured me it was only a three- 
penny bit, which we found in the State coffers at 



THE JCEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 449 

^Pretoria in 18Y7. The revenue before the war 
amounted to between 4 and 5 millions, and nineteen- 
twentieths of this money was extracted from Johan- 
nesburg.* It is not only that almost every article 
of food and raiment is taxed, and that the railway 
charges — government raihvays of course — are ridic- 
ulously high, but almost every industry is converted 
into a State, or private monopoly. All imported 
articles of necessity are taxed to the utmost, so as to 
make it possible for the owners of these monopolies 
to sell their goods at a profit. It would be amusing 
were I to enumerate the various articles which are 
subject to monopolistic rights; but I know that 
soap, scrubbing-brushes and ^ even water are so 
treated ; and that this alone is sufficient to account 
for the fact that bitter as are the Uitlanders against 
the Government, their wives and daughters are more 
bitter still. No wonder when everything necessary 
to ensure a cleanly home is made ridiculously dear, 
in order that some friend at court, who has succeeded 
in bribing the Pretoria Government, may be able to 
grow rich. 

It must not be thought that I do the President 
and his Dopper friends the honour of supposing that 
they, unaided, out of their simple, God-fearing 
brains, contrived and invented all these devices of 
extortion and repression. They were quick to rec- 
ognize that with all their subtlety, their genius for 
evasion and falsehood, they could not stand against 
the Uitlanders ; among whom, whatever we mav 
think of them in other regards, some of the ablest 

* Before June 1, 1900. 
29 



460 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

men of business in the Empire are to be found. The 
President was prompt to make good his own disa- 
bilities, knowing that neither he nor his simple 
burghers could meet the Eand magnates on equal 
terms, much less send all those imposing missions to 
European capitals, imploring Continental aid, sym- 
pathy or intervention, unless they beckoned to their 
side men used to the ways of the world and to the 
ways of diplomacy. It is, of course, impossible to 
absolve President Kruger in the first degree from 
the chief blame in this matter ; since it was he who 
tempted Dr. Leyds and his following to put about 
that tissue of falsehoods, both in the Transvaal and 
in Europe, in support of the Boer cause, which has 
done the Uitlanders so much injury. JSTevertheless, 
Mr. Kruger has in any case managed to deceive 
himself that he has a patriotic motive in what he 
has done, though it is difficult to understand how he 
can reconcile with patriotism the amassing of a huge 
fortune, and the enriching of his numerous relatives, 
much less the open corruption and venality going 
on all around him, at which he winks and connives ; 
as difficult as it is to imagine how a man who has 
gone so directly against all Christian doctrine, and 
has supported with all his strength the illicit liquor 
trade whereby the natives are debauched, can em- 
broider his every act with a scriptural quotation. 
Assuredly the President's religion is not that of the 
New Testament. Dr. Leyds, on the other hand, has 
not the excuse of ignorance and prejudice for what 
he has done. He has exploited the Transvaal and 
deceived its people. 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 45 1 

The day of reckoning for the President is coming, 
when his burghers will ask him why he deceived 
them into the belief that Great Britain had no sol- 
diers, and that such as she had were cowards and 
imbeciles; but however hardly the wrath of the 
awakened Boer may fall on leaders of his own race, 
his wrath with the Hollander clique, who have 
wrongly informed and advised those leaders, is cer- 
tain to be ten times more terrible. 

I am aware that in my endeavour to give in a few 
words an impression of the gross misgovernment of 
the Transvaal, I have omitted many of the most 
serious counts in the indictment against the Govern- 
ment of that country. N'othing could condemn that 
Government more completely than the disgraceful 
way in which the Chief Justice, Mr. Kotze, was 
thrown to the dogs because he would not become 
the creature of the Eaad, or, in other words, of the 
President. The outcome of this struggle between 
the Executive and Judiciary, the subservience of the 
latter to the former, has, of course, destroyed the 
alien's last hope of obtaining justice ; since the Eaad, 
and not the High Court, is now declared to be the first 
judicial authority in the land.* The right of public 
meeting does not exist in the Transvaal. Of the 
adult male population of Johannesburg, onh^ one in 
a hundred enjoys the franchise. The officials are 
uniformly corrupt. There is scant protection for 
life or property ; outrages of all kinds go unavenged ; 
and the sale of liquor to the natives, in defiance of 
a law which it was never intended should be carried 
* Written before June 1, 1900. 



452 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

out, results in 25 per cent, of the Kaffir labourers 
on the Haad being in a constant state of intoxication. 
But the abuses and oppressions from which not 
only the mining industry, but the whole population 
of the Kand suffer, are limitless. Sir Alfred Mil- 
ner's proposal at the Bloemfontein Conference, had 
it been accepted, would have prepared the way for 
the gradual removal of these abuses. Still the pro- 
cess would have been a long and tedious one ; since 
until the Uitlander population spread itself all over 
the country, it could not hope to have a majority, 
and could only hope to carry forward a progressive 
policy by means of moral suasion ; the gradual 
leavening of the mass of ignorance, that is to say. 
I freely confess that, having regard to the past his- 
tory of the President, I thought, until the last al- 
most, that he would ultimately accept the High 
Commissioner's exceedingly moderate terms. That 
he did not do so shows to what a low ebb British 
prestige must have fallen in the Dutchman's eyes ; 
and how terribly misled he has been as to our 
strength and resources, and as to our willingness to 
put them both forth to the utmost. That we did 
not put forth our power earlier, may be ascribed to 
political considerations and to an unhappy fact, 
which Lord Salisbury has been too proud to admit, 
but which Mr. Chamberlain has tacitly acknowl- 
edged. Under our system of government, when the 
power to make or mar imperial policy rests with the 
people, the most patriotic administration is afraid, as 
the present administration was afraid, to risk its 



TH5 KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 453 

chances of carrjnng through a thoroughly national 
and imperial programme, lest it should give occa- 
sion to the little Englanders to stump the countr}^ 
Avith the cry that its opponents were attempting 
to crush liberty, or, in this particular case, to coerce 
a free and independent nation. Seeing that the 
great majority of the electors vote according to 
their sentiments, and not according to their reason 
(that necessarily being an unknown quantity with 
them), a government which wants to save the coun- 
try from the ruinous disasters into which the nomi- 
nees of ignorance have constantly betrayed it, is 
compelled to order its footsteps warily, lest indeed 
it should be tripped up before it can accomplish the 
good work that lies before it. 

However that may be, we have now put our hands 
to the plough, and we shall not turn back until the 
presumptuous pretensions of these small communities 
of semi-civilised farmers are silenced for ever. On 
the whole, it is fortunate that the vaulting ambition 
of the President of the Orange Free State, President 
Steyn, has involved the lesser Republic in the fate 
of the greater. It will make the business of settling 
the matter simpler and cleaner. 

There may be some innocent folk who really be- 
lieve, as many anything but simple folk pretend to 
believe, that the war is a millionaire's war or a land- 
grabber's war. The idea is comically erroneous. 
That the Government has done its utmost to avoid 
the war, the Blue Books conclusively prove. It has 
been too anxious almost, to adhere strictly to those 



454 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

unfortunate instruments for which previous govern- 
ments were responsible. 

As to the millionaires, there are millionaires and 
millionaires. Several are patriots, while others are 
entitled to our respect as the organisers and con- 
ductors of giant industries. But whatever we may 
think of the millionaire, I would say of him, gener- 
ally, what the Oxford undergraduate said of his 
father, " After all, one must remember that he is a 
human being." As touching the African million- 
aire, however, the playful little way he has of let- 
ting securities " go flop," in which he has persuaded 
one to invest one's little all, may sometimes make 
one doubt whether he is entitled to the considerations 
claimed by the undergraduate for his father. In 
any case, human being or not, he is not often a per- 
son one is likely to become enthusiastic about or to 
go out of one's way to defend. Many of the South 
African millionaires came from the pavement or 
thereabouts, and when one has met them, it is some- 
times difficult to discover sufficient reason why they 
should not have remained there. I do not pretend 
to believe that the Rand magnates, as a body, are 
now, or were at an 3^ time, animated by lofty or pa- 
triotic motives in what they have done to relieve the 
mining industry from the intolerable disabilities 
under which it suffers. We could scarcely expect 
them to be very zealous for British suzerain rights, 
since, as a matter of fact, a great number of 
them are German and not British subjects. For the 
rest, so long as there was any reasonable hope that 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 455 

these disabilities were removable by local endeav- 
our, they stood aloof from the efforts of the rank 
and file to secure needful economic and political 
reforms. That they will benefit largely by the ac- 
tion of the British Empire in taking up the cause of 
the Uitlanders must be obvious to the meanest intel- 
ligence ; since they are always able to buy securities 
in the cheapest market, and when the war is over 
they will be able to sell them in the dearest. But 
these are quite minor considerations. If any one is 
so simple as to believe that the British Government 
has undertaken the arduous task of bringing the 
Pretoria oligarchy to justice merel}^ to oblige a 
number of comparatively unimportant persons, the 
Kand millionaires, he is cherishing a grotesque and 
ridiculous delusion. In point of fact, important as 
it was to relieve Johannesburg from the oppression 
of Pretoria, even that object sinks into insignificance 
in comparison with the real object of the war, 
which is nothing more nor less than to teach the 
Boers, once and for all; who is master in South 
Africa ; and to set at rest for ever the question of 
British paramountcy throughout that country. 
And it was, be it remembered, the Boers themselves 
who raised this issue. The whole course of Preto- 
ria's policy since the conclusion of the convention 
of 1881, has been guided by the effort to wriggle 
out of the conditions of vassalage Avhich in a lucid 
moment our rulers insisted on including in that in- 
strument. They tried to do this in 1884, but failed ; 
they have been trying ever since. Meanwhile, by 



456 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

employing the enormous surplus funds at their dis- 
posal, they have taken every means to fan and fos- 
ter the feeling of disloyalty, the aspirations towards 
a United Africander Eepublic, in Cape Colony and 
E'atal. The Africander Bond, which simple folk 
and interested folk have asked us to regard as a 
loyal organisation of Cape Dutchmen, aims as a 
matter of fact at the subversion of British influence 
in South Africa ; and, to use the words of its consti- 
tution, the establishment of " a United South Africa 
under its own flag." Of course in such an organi- 
sation there is room for degrees of disloyalty ; and 
I do not contend that all its members are prepared 
or anxious to throw off their allegiance to Great 
Britain ; while I know that all of them are exceed- 
ingly keen on retaining the British navy as the pro- 
tector of their coasts and their commerce. But the 
Cape Dutch are a remarkably " slim " people : they 
believe in sitting on the fence, and many of them 
have shown that when they thought they could do so 
with safet}'' they were rea^dy to take sides with the 
Transvaal, and support the conspiracy of the rulers 
of that country to establish a United South African 
Kepublic. Transvaal gold has, of course, done much 
to stimulate nationalist aspirations ; while private 
ambitions and jealousies, and race antipathies have 
done more. From the very first the most danger- 
ous members of the Transvaal governments— always 
excepting the President and his Hollander body- 
guard — were British subjects, such renegade Cape 
Dutchmen as Mr, Keitz and Hr. Smuts. There 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 457 

are many who think that the Prime Minister of- 
Cape Colony might as well join those Cape Dutch- 
men who have crossed the Kubicon. Mr. Schreiner 
is not a Dutchman ; but a Cape Colonist of mixed 
German and British origin. Chance, however, has 
made him the leader of the Africander Bond, and 
assuredly he has done little enough during the last 
few months to show that his heart is with the im- 
perial cause. He is understood to defend his con- 
duct on the plea that he feels his presence in power, 
a man of avowed Africander Bond sympathies, is a 
guarantee against civil war. It has been said that 
if the Cape Premier were an open and avowed ally 
of Great Britain ; if he had encouraged the loyalists 
of the Cape to form themselves into volunteer corps 
for service at the front ; if he had prevented arms 
reaching the Transvaal and Orange Free State by 
way of British ports, and so forth, he would have 
incited the Cape Dutch to take sides with their 
brothers and cousins in the Republic. Now, accept- 
ing this theory as true, it will be seen at once 
what kind of situation we are really facing in 
South Africa. We are facing a rebellion on the 
part of the two Republics, a rebellion secretly ap- 
proved and supported by the greater number of the 
Queen's subjects in Cape .Colony, and no small num- 
ber in Natal, too — for while the Dutch greatly out- 
number the British in the parent Colony, they are 
in considerable force in the northern part of Natal. 
It comes to this, then, that what we are now about 
ju South Africa, is the suppression of a rebel- 



458 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

lion, active in the Republics, and covert in our 
own colonies. There can be no kind of doubt, 
however, that, when the Dutch of British South 
Africa have become convinced, for the time being in 
any case, that Great Britain has finally determined 
to retain her hold on the whole of South Africa (a 
conviction greatly weakened by the whole course of 
our South x\frican policy in recent years), they will 
breathe a sigh of relief that they can no longer be 
expected to risk their skins and their lands in the 
attempt to set up an Africander Republic. If, how- 
ever, when the Republics are finally subdued, there 
should be any weakness in the terms of settlement, 
the continual loyalty of the Cape Dutch will be as 
uncertain to calculate upon as the continued sub- 
mission of the Transvaal and Free State Dutch may 
be certainly calculated against. If any one supposes 
that any real and lasting settlement of the South 
African question is possible on any other lines than 
the complete and unreserved assumption of imperial 
authority over the Transvaal, he is grievously mis- 
taken. From my knowledge of this problem and 
all the factors which go to make it, I am absolutely 
certain that any settlement which fell short of this, 
could be a settlement in name only. The very first 
opportunity which presented itself, should we be in- 
volved in a conflict with France over the coming 
Morocco question, or with Russia over the ripening 
Chinese question, the old trouble w^ill re-assert itself, 
and we shall have to undertake anew, perhaps under 
more unfavourable circumstances still, the business 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 459 

of showing who is master in South Africa. The 
Transvaal must be disarmed ; and it must for a time 
be garrisoned, and although it is premature to dis- 
cuss w^hether it will be converted temporarily into 
a Crown Colony, or whether the Queen in Council 
will promulgate a new constitution for the Cape, 
Transvaal, Free State, E'atal and Rhodesia uniting 
them in a Federal Commonwealth similar to the 
Dominion of Canada, or whether the boundaries 
of IS'atal should be extended, it may be asserted 
that in any case the Boer oligarchy must be swept 
away. After what has occurred. Sir Alfred Milner's 
minimum proposals are of course ridiculously in- 
adequate ; for as Mr. Chamberlain has said, an en- 
tirely new situation has been created by the Boer 
ultimatum. The Boers will find that the Conven- 
tions of 1881 and 1884 are mortal in a sense which 
they never attached to Lord Salisbury's description 
of them under that name. They will find that not 
only morally, but legally and actually, they them- 
selves have dealt a death-blow to these conventions. 
It was the Boers who issued the ultimatum : it was 
they who threw off, in the case of the Transvaal, the 
suzerainty, in the case of the Freie State, the para- 
mountcy, of Great Britain. It was only under these 
conventions that the Transvaal enjoyed or could 
claim independence. By renouncing the suzerainty, 
the President has caused the country to revert to its 
status before 1881 ; he has revoked, or to be more 
precise, cancelled, that instrument ; while the Free 
State in entering into an offensive and defensive 



460 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

alliance with its northern neighbour, has put itself 
in the same position as the Transvaal. We are deal- 
ing manifestly with rebels and conspirators who 
must pay the penalty of treason. 

At last we are to have the chance of retrieving 
the mistakes of 1836 downwards, and of relieving 
Englishmen, once and for all, from that intolerable 
condition of subserviency in which for nearly 20 
years they have found themselves in the Dutch 
Republics. I am confident that my countrymen 
will turn a deaf ear to these stale commonplaces of 
ill-informed sentimentalists, who as I write are fill- 
ing the air with their sighs and their cries because, 
as they put it, a free people are about to be robbed 
of their independence. Independence ! What 
people enjoy a greater measure of independence than 
the subjects of the Queen, whether at home or in 
Her Majesty's colonies. We are condemned to 
listen to whines and whimperings at the cruelty of 
subjugating a small, God-fearing and liberty-loving 
people. As for God-fearing, it is unhappily a fact 
that despite their bravery and fighting qualities, 
which it would ill-become me to belittle, it would be 
difficult to find anywhere a more idle, dirty, igno- 
rant or immoral race than the Transvaal Boers. 
They are past masters in the art of lying and decep- 
tion. They have become debased through years 
of isolation and years of idleness; for all the 
real work is done by the Kaffirs. As to liberty, 
liberty for the Boers means the right to claim 
absolute licence for themselves ; while they deny 



THE KEYSTONE OF THE EMPIRE. 461 

the most elementary freedom or justice to the men 
who toil to feed and clothe them — the Kaffirs 
and the Uitlanders. As to robbing them of 
their country, there would be little enough of hard- 
ship about that were the phrase, a mere exuberance 
of rhetoric, in any way descriptive of the act of 
substituting good government for bad. For it must 
be remembered that it is only sixty years or so 
since the Boers took this country from the natives. 
Their right to it is merely the right of conquest ; 
while our right to it when it falls to our arms, will 
rest on conquest plus our moral and inalienable 
rights as the Paramount Power in South Africa. I 
would say then that by every dictate of justice and of 
common sense we are bound to make an end of the 
Boer Republics, and with them the attempted Afri- 
cander leadership in South Africa. The law of self- 
preservation obliges us to this course; for if 3"0u 
once leave the Boer a chance, he will renew his 
effort to make his race and his language dominant 
in the sub-continent. It is much kinder to him to 
let him see that the attempt is hopeless. There was 
a time when I looked to the intermarriage of Dutch 
and English to remove the antagonism between the 
two races. But that hope may be dismissed ; at all 
events until such time as Great Britain has made 
considerable headway with the task of opening up 
and colonising the Transvaal. When the English 
are in great numerical superiority, the process of 
fusion may begin. But among the many reasons 
why I despair of any settlement being permanent 



46^ PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

which will leave political power in the hands of the 
TBansvaal or Free State Dutch, is the knowledge that 
even should the men be brought to acquiesce in Brit- 
ish ascendancy, the women never will. It is the Boer 
women who have hardened the hearts of their 
husbands, fathers and brothers, and it is they 
who have done more than the male Boers to 
bring about the war. If I am asked why this 
is so, I can only say that the best explanation 
which presents itself to my mind is summed up in 
that famous saying of Yirgil, which, being freely 
rendered, declares that a woman never forgives the 
man who is blind to her charms. ISTowit so happens 
that though our countrymen have not always been 
blind to the charms of the native woman, and tlie 
more the pity, few, if any, have as yet seen fit to 
cast eyes of admiration on the Dutch women of the 
Transvaal. 

In conclusion I must say again, and say it with 
all seriousness, that we must tolerate no silly senti- 
mentality which will stand in the way of a complete 
and final settlement of this century-old quarrel. As 
a writer in the Quarterly Review has recently said, 
quoting an old French proverb : " If two men ride 
on a horse, one of the men must ride behind." 
The Dutchmen must ride behind in South Africa. 
And I would ask for what are we making these 
enormous sacrifices, for what is much of the best 
blood of this country being spilt, if the Dutchman 
is not to ride behind ? We have not asked the pick 
of our countrymen to lay down their lives merely 



THE KEYSTONiE OF THE EMPIRE. 4^5 

to secure a few ineffectual votes for the Uitlanders, 
but we have asked them to give those lives, and 
without question they die in that assurance, that 
England may be acknowledged the undisputed Lord 
of South Africa, and that she may have a free hand 
to create from Cape Town to Cairo a mighty Em- 
pire wherein millions of our race can find scope for 
their activities and opportunities for expansion : we 
have asked them to die, and they are dying for 
nothing less than this. And I say in all seriousness 
that if England should be untrue to this silent, this 
sacred, pledge, if she should allow the golden oppor- 
tunity the patience of her rulers has at last given 
her, to consolidate the British Empire, by making 
secure that portion of it which is most open to attack, 
then England will be haunted in her downward 
course by the spirits of those brave and noble sons 
of Britain who fought and died for her in the days 
when she was still the mightiest Empire of free- 
born men the world had ever seen. 

And here I must leave South Africa. I have 
dealt largely with the question of immediate mo- 
ment because it is the question which has been ripen- 
ing for solution throughout the century, and be- 
cause its final settlement, in the interests of Great 
Britain, will mean that South Africa will enter upon 
an era of progress beyond the dreams of the most 
sanguine, while any failure to secure a settlement on 
the lines indicated above, would inevitably mean the 
beginning of the break-up of the British Empire. 



464 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIREJ. 



CHAPTEE XYII. 

THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 

As set forth in figures, the history of the British Em- 
pire during the century presents an unassailable case 
for progress. There is scarcely a department of hu- 
man affairs, so far as Great Britain and her colonies 
are concerned, which belies this statement ; indeed it 
is probable that in the realm of the ascertainable and 
the definite, it would be difficult to find the excep- 
tion which proves the rule ; unless indeed the fact 
that two of our colonies, British Guiana and the 
West Indian group, are suffering, temporarily as I 
believe, from depression may be taken as exceptions. 
Still, so far in any case, as material progress goes, it is, 
for the Empire generally, a great and unanswerable 
fact. The increase in wealth has been astounding, 
both so far as private wealth and the wealth of the na- 
tion go. The returns of successive finance ministers, 
the death dues claimed by the Chancellor of the 
Exchequer prove this to demonstration. Political 
freedom, in fact freedom in a broader sense, has 
made remarkable strides. The people are infinitely 
better housed, fed and taught than they were at the 
beginning of the century. In 1801 the science of 
sanitation scarcely existed. The people fell hope- 
less victims to epidemics ; while their lives were 



THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 465 

at all times at the mercy of doctors, mostly igno- 
rant and frequently neglectful. Their minds were 
as ill-cared for as their bodies ; the few agencies 
concerning themselves with their intellectual wel- 
fare then existing, were totally inadequate for the 
purpose. Books were scarce and dear ; the privilege 
of the rich and well-to-do. Newspapers and maga- 
zines scarcely existed, save for the fortunate few. 
Communication between mind and mind was diffi- 
cult, for the post was expensive, clumsy and un- 
trustworthy ; and steam locomotion and telegraphy 
were unheard of. Travelling was obviously con- 
fined to the upper classes ; the labouring, and in- 
deed the greater part of the middle classes also, were 
debarred from moving about the country unless they 
were content to walk. If communication between 
town and town within the boundaries of the Kine:- 
dom was thus restricted, the possibilities of inter- 
communication between the various portions of the 
Empire were meagre enough. "When an emigrant 
left his native land in the earlier part of the cen- 
tury, he left it for good, or in any case it is true to 
say this of the vast majority of emigrants. 

I have endeavoured to trace under their several 
heads and subdivisions the various and multiform 
evidences of progress throughout the century and 
throughout the Empire. As I have said, the case 
for progress, bringing the record up to the end of 
the century, is, so far as material things go, over- 
whelming and complete. There are not wanting 
symptoms, dwelt upon lovingly by the pessimist, 
30 



466 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE* 

that this material prosperity has reached its apogee, 
so far at all events as Great Britain is concerned. 
She is to be ousted from her position in the markets 
of the world by the United States and by Germany, 
by all and sundry in fact ; her internal economy is 
to be dislocated, and her institutions subverted by a 
great upheaval of the industrial classes. It has 
scarcely come v^ithin the province of this work to 
discuss these contingencies, but it does come within 
its scope to speculate as to how far all this material 
progress can be regarded as actual progress. There 
are many thinkers, and not a few writers, who go so 
far as to deny the reality of material well-being as 
affecting the bulk of the people ; they assert that 
wealth has fallen to the undeserving and the unscru- 
pulous, and they protest loudly that modern civiliza- 
tion is a fraud ; that its show and glitter are built 
upon the sufferings and sacrifices of the million, 
who toil in order that the elect of chance may enjoy 
ease and luxury. Terrible as the spectacle of the 
suffering poor is, hateful as this unfair division of 
the world's goods must be to all right-thinking men 
and women, it is, I think, impossible to deny that 
the evils of poverty and of the unequal distribution 
of the earth's fruits have lessened since the begin- 
ning of the century. The mass of the people have 
more freedom, mOre comforts, greater facilities for 
rest and enjoyment, than at any other time in the 
his!:ory of the English race. I am of course exclud- 
ing the residuum ; but into this matter I have gone 
as fully as I found possible in the foregoing pages. 



THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 467 

The misgiving which weighs upon the mind in con- 
tending that the British race has progressed, is of a 
more radical and general nature even than that 
suggested by the terrible problem of the residuum. 
Though at the moment we have anarchy at both 
ends of the social scale ; for there is little to choose 
between the cynical disregard of the moral law of the 
" smart" set, and the brutal violence of the Hooligan, 
it is true to say of the century as a whole that 
there has been a great improvement in manners, in 
sobriety, and in the observance of national laws. 
The people as a whole are more moral and less 
criminal. That they are any less religious because 
they are no longer compelled by law to attend their 
parish church, I do not maintain. But the fear ob- 
trudes itself upon the mind that with all this amelio- 
ration of hard conditions, all this increase of prosper- 
ity, there has been no proportionate increase of 
happiness. Pleasure is evervwhere, content no- 
where. The unsettling of the old beliefs has, so far, 
brought no compensation in its train. Never has 
the world, and especially the Anglo-Saxon world, 
given itself over so unreservedly to the pursuit of 
material advantage ; never has there been an age in 
which men hurried to get rich with so much single- 
ness of aim. Therefore although there is less dis- 
position to break the letter of the law, it is scarcely 
too much to say that the whole world is engaged in 
a conspiracy to evade its spirit. Again, while the 
votaries of coarse and brutal delights grow grad- 
ually less, the body of pleasure-seekers grows sen- 



468 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRI^. 

sibly greater. In brief the age — and especially is 
this the case with the progressive peoples, the 
British Empire at their head — is essentially an age 
which has said to itself, " Let us eat, drink and be 
merry, for to-morrow we die." 

The reason is not far to seek. While religious 
organisations grow apace, the comfort they formerly 
diffused steadily declines. This is undeniable fact 
— it must be apparent to every student of modern 
developments. Undoubtedly there has been relig- 
ious progress. It is not for me to say there has been 
no spiritual progress, but if there has, it has been 
of so transitional and indefinite a character it 
is impossible to dogmatise about it. That the bulk 
of the people was always pagan, one recognises. 
Christianity put a thin veneer on paganism ; and 
such as it was, the Reformation removed a good 
deal of that veneer, though that may seem a strong 
thing for a Protestant to say. The teaching of the 
French Encyclopaedists and of their English equiv- 
alents, Tom Paine and his like, rendered the people 
actively, instead of merely negatively, atheistical. 
Frankly brutal and fatalistic, the lack of faith was 
scarcely felt by them. It is scarcely felt now, save 
when some revivalist movement, such as the Salva- 
tion Army inaugurated, touches the slumbering con- 
sciences and stirs the embers of ancient superstitions 
in the breasts of the masses. It may be questioned 
whether the essence of religion ever had a very firm 
hold on the upper classes ; but until science had 
brought facts home to the intelligence of the think- 



THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 469 

ing classes which appear unanswerably to destroy 
the bases of faith — the great bulk of the middle 
classes accepted religion in one shape or another as 
a real and living force. It is not for me to say 
whether the belief in individual immortality, which 
has undoubtedly perished, or almost perished, with 
the belief in a personal Deity, can be replaced by 
any other vitalising and forceful belief making for 
spirituality and happiness. But there can be no 
doubt that the conviction has sunk deep into the 
common mind of the Anglo-Saxon world ; its litera- 
ture breathes it, its actions attest it, that man is the 
veriest atom on a planet which is itself dust in the 
balance of the universe. That, at the very best, he 
is only a symptomatic expression of some hidden 
force ; that he is nothing in himself, that his will is 
the resultant of forces pre-natal to himself, and ex- 
ternal to himself, and that if he be a link in some 
chain, the chain is not of his forging, nor can it bind 
him to anything definite, anything permanent. 
Such consciousness as he has is but a phantasy, 
while even the phantasy is doomed to extinction at 
the death of the poor fools who have hitherto 
imagined it to be a real, absolute and imperishable 
entity. And the world which gave birth to this 
self-deceiving fraud is itself hastening to extinction, 
to absorption, that is to say, as dead matter in some 
fresh combination of blind forces, re-united to re- 
peat in time the deceptive phantasmagoria in some 
other form. Hence what is human fame ? what 
human achievement ? What is honour ? what vice ? 



4,70 PROGRESS OF BRITISH EMPIRE. 

what virtue ? Euskin has said, " When we build, 
let us think we build for ever." The mischief is we 
can no longer think it, because our eyes are fixed on 
the finite nature of all created things. My outlook 
on the world tells me this, if it tells me nothing 
else with surety, that the hurry to be rich, the 
apotheosis of material comfort, the hectic desire for 
pleasure, the enormous value attached to the mere 
act of living, that all these tendencies, and they are 
the tendencies of modern civilisation, as seen in the 
Anglo-Saxon world, are due to the fact that pro- 
gressive man has lost his hold on everything outside 
this world. He may keep the semblance of faith, 
but the reality has gone. How could it be other- 
wise? The great truths of the evolution theory, 
grand and elevating if we could only feel that as Ave 
have come from humble beginnings we are destined 
for lofty ends, take a sombre hue when they are 
associated with the conclusions forced in upon us 
by experience and research that all things progress 
to a certain height and from that height decline. 
And man, peering into futurity, sees himself de- 
clining, and is forced back upon absorption in the 
present. But I must not follow this speculation 
further. It is the shadow athwart our prosperity 
and our progress. It is the day of altruism, it is 
true. The sufferings of the poor and the afflicted 
engage the thought and attention of thousands of 
charitable souls. That philanthropy proceeds too 
much from the head or from emotional sentimen- 
tality, rather than from the unprompted and un- 



THE SHADOW ATHWART PROGRESS. 471 

tainted heart must be allowed, but this is inevitable 
in an age which by constantly looking at the profit 
and loss account, has become hopelessly commercial- 
ised on the one hand, and by its excesses seriously 
enervated on the other. 

So much it has behoved me to say of an aspect 
of the progress of this Empire which for many years 
now has forced itself upon my notice and attention 
and which I could not leave unsaid without being 
unfaithful to my brief. I have written admiringly 
of the wonderful, the almost complete and general 
advance of the Empire during the century : of the 
increase of wealth, knowledge and comfort in every 
direction. But I would not have it thought that 
my studentship of the times is so shallow as not to 
have taught me, convinced me that" is to say, that 
in one regard, the most important of all, there has 
been no progress, that on the contrary there has 
been retrogression. In the important matter of 
happiness, we were never so poverty-stricken, never 
so bankrupt as we are to-day. The world, the pro- 
gressive world, has lost its hold on the unseen. It 
aches for a new revelation, for a renewal of faith, 
though it proudly hides the truth from itself in its 
mad and headlong pursuit of the bubbles of the 
moment. For my part I believe this sad condition 
is the harbinger of a new birth, a spiritual renais- 
sance, and that out of the crash and wreck of old 
beliefs and old shibboleths light is about to break 
forth. 



INDEX. 



Aberdeen Administration (1852-55), 

23. 
Aberdeen, Lord, 313. 
Abolition of Purchase in the Army, 

351. 
Aden (acquired 1832), 62, 
Admiralty, The, 411. 
Adventurer, The Gentleman, 74. 
Afghan Wars, 343. 
Africa, colonising, vi. 
African Review, The, 372. 
Africander Bond, The, 401, 407, 456, 

457. 
Agent-Generalship, the nature and 

possibilities of the, 109. 
Akbar, 208. 
Alfred, King, 51. 
Aliens and British Empire, 324. 
America, Cession of, 22. 
American Civil War (1860-6), 368, 
American Competition, 147. 
American Imperialism, 103. 
Amiens, Treaty of (1802), 13, 22, 419. 
Anglo- American Alliance, 101. 
Anglo-French Convention (1899), 58, 

203, 
Anglo-German Alliance, ix, 96, 369, 
Animals, Improved Treatment of, 

317. 
Anthony, Susan, 332. 
Anti-Convict Association (Cape Col- 
ony, 1847). 86. 
Arabi Pasha, 204. 
Arbitration, xii. 
Architecture, 306. 
Area of British Empire, 55-59. 
Army, British, 339-380. 
Arnold, Matthew, 229, 
Art, 304. 

Arts and Crafts Society, 305, 306, 
Ashanti, 200. 

Ascension Island (acquired, 1815), 62. 
Asiatic Archipelago, 96. 
Athenaeum, The, 303. 
Athletics, Influence of, 311. 
Aurungzebe, 207-8. 
Austen, Jane, 299. 
Australia, 196, 239, 240, 277, 286, 401. 
Austro-Prussian War, 341, 



B, 



Bahamas, 60. 

Baird, General, 419. 

Balfour of Burleigh, Lord, 378, 

Banbury, Captain, 405. 

Banking, Growth of, 323. 

Barkly, Sir Henry, 43. 

Barnardo, Dr., 81, 260. 

Beaconsfield, Lord, 203. 

Bechuanaland, 63. 

Benefit-Societies, 296. 

Bermuda (Acquired 1609), 59. 

Berry, Sir Graham 95, 398, 410, 

Bezuidenhout, 431. 

Birth Pangs of the Empire, 1. 

Bismarck, Prince, 96, 362. 

Bloch, M. de, 385. 

Bloemfontein Conference, 452. 

Boers, as Pioneers, 441. 

Boer Prophecy and British Empire, 

322 390 
Booth,' Charles, xviii., 162, 212, 255, 

258, 260. 
Booth, General, 212, 260, 320. 
Borneo, Sultan of, 62. 
Borthwick, Sir Algernon (Lord Glen- 

esk) 43. 
Bourne, Fox, 27. 
Brabourne, Lord, 43. 
Brassey, Lord, 43, 193, 394, 
Brassey, T. A., 383, 394. 
British and Foreign School Society, 

288. 
British Army, 339, 380. 
British Empire at end of External 

Development, 73. 
British Empire League, 143. 
British Guiana (acquired, 1803), 60. 
Bronte, Charlotte, 299. 
Broome, Sir Napier, 87, 
Brown, Baldwin, 319. 
Browning, Robert, 299. 
Bryce, Professor James, 43. 
Bubble Companies and Aristocratic 

Directors, 294. 
Burdett and Liberty, 294. 
Burdett-Coutts, The Baroness, 260, 

313. 
Burgers, President, 444. 
Burgoyne, General Sir John, 348. 

473 



474 



INDEX. 



Burke. Edmund, 25. 
Burue-Jones, 305. 
Burus, Robert, 299. 
Burrows, Prof. Montagu, 43. 
Burton (the Explorer), 320. 
Buxton, 440. 
Byron, 18, 299. 

C. 

Caicos Isles, 60. 

Caird, Mrs. Mona, 332. 

Caledon, Lord, 426. 

Cambridge, Duke of, 894. 

Canada, 5, 7, 8, 16, 26, 59, 69, 71, 134, 

188, 1^1, 195, 240, 277, 286, 311, 388, 

359, 409. 
Canada : An Encyclopcedia, 408. 
Canadian Confederation (1867), 31. 
Canadian Corn, 140. 
Canadian Pacific Railway, 80, 276, 

402. 
Canada's Concession to British 

Trade, 116, 117. 
Canals, 275. 
Cape Argus, The. 
Cape Colony (1797, 1806, 1815), 7, 8, 

57, 61,113,287,419. 
Cape gift of a battle-ship to Im- 
perial Navy, 113, 400. 
Cape Mounted Rifles, 406. 
Cape Rifle Clubs, 406. 
Cape Times, 303. 
Card well, Lord, 355. 
Carlyle, Thomas. 299. 
Carnarvon, Lord, 31, 32, 39, 82, 110. 
Ceylon (1795), 60. 
Cetewayo, 444. 
Chamberlain, Joseph, 28, 39, 188, 281, 

288, 404, 407, 418, 452, 459. 
Chambers Journal, 303. 
Charlton, John, 189. 
Chartered Company, 12, 320. 
Chauvinists. French, 72. 
Child-Life, 290, 314, 333. 
China, xi., xv., 458. 
Chronicle, Daily, 301. 
Church and Stage, 308. 
Clive, 124, 209. 
Coahng Stations, 339, 413. 
Cobden, 135. 
Cobden Club, 125, 171. 
Coghill, T. A., 194, 405. 
Coleridge, 299. 
Collins, Colonel 433, 434. 
Colomb, Admiral, 394. 
Colomb, Sir John, xviii., 30, 43, 57, 58, 

186, 379, 385, .389, 393-397. 
Colonial Aid to Britain, viii. 
Colonial and Indian Exhibition (1886), 

45. 
Colonial Art, 307. 
Colonial Defence, 40, 395. 
Colonial Loans Bill, 183, 185. 
Colonial Press, 303. 
Colonial Wines, 133. 



Colonisation, 80-36. 
Columbia, British, 80. 
Commercial Immorality, 294. 
Communication, 282-286, 
Compulsory Education Act, 288. 
Condition of the Aged Poor, 212. 
Conscription in the Colonies, 404-5. 
Constable, 805. 
Consular Reports and British Trade, 

147. 
Contemporary Revietv, The 303. 
Conventions, Transvaal (1881, 1884), 

445, 455, 459. 
Convicts and Colonies, 86, 239. 
Cook and Sons, 310. 
Cooper, Astley, 312, 
Cooper, Sir Daniel, 43. 
Corn, Price of, 4. 
Corn Laws, 4, 10, 125. 
Cosmopolitan, Tlie, 302. 
Cradock, Sir John, 427. 
Craig, General, 420. 
Crane, Walter, 305. 
Crime, 294, 317, 318. 
Crimean War, 841, 386, 393. 
Cromer, Lord, 204. 
Cromwell, as Empire Founder, 60. 
Crown Lands and the Colonies, 84, 

402, 437. 
Cumberland, Ernest Augustus, 

Duke of, 50. 
Cyprus, 63. 



Damaraland, 98. 

Darwin, Charles. 299, 316. 

Delagoa Bay, xii. 

Derby, Earl of (the Elder) xvii., 37. 

Devonshire, Duke of, 399. 

Diamond Jubilee (1897), 110, 357. 

Dickens, Charles, 299, 316. 

Dilke, Sir Charles, xix, 313, 365, 368, 

372, 373, 411. 
Divorces, 293. 
Docemo, King of Lagos, 63. 
Duffy, Sir Charles Gavan, 43. 
Dunraven, Earl of, 140. 
D'Urban, Sir Benjamin, 439. 
Durham, Earl of, 6. 
Drama, The, 307-809. 
Drummond, Professor, 319. 

E. 

East Africa, 96. 

East End of London, 820, 324. 

East India Company, 123, 207, 208, 

320. 
East India Company (Dutch) 421. 
Eastern Province; Cape Colony: 

itsColonisation (1820), xvi., 5, 75, 

422, 435, 43G, 437, 438. 
Edinburgh Revietv, The, 302. 
Education, 287-293. 
Egbert, King of England, 50. 
Egypt and England, 201-204, 



INDEX. 



475 



Elizabeth : An Empire Maker, 60. 
Elizabeth, Port, 421. 
EUenborough, Lord and Howe, 295. 
Elmy, Mrs. Wolstenholme, 332. 
Elphinstone, Admiral, 420. 
Emigration, 19, 74-77, 79, 190. 
Empire Builders, 320. 
Encyclopaedists, French, 468. 
European Enmity to Britain, vii. 
Exeter Hall, Ethics of, 432. 
Expansion of England (published 
1884), xix., 29, 121. 



F. 



Factory Life : destroys a race, 167. 

Fair Trade, 137. 

Fairbairn, 439. 

Farm Colonies, 214. 

Farmer's Year Book, xix., 138, 232. 

Farrar, Canon, 316. 

Fashoda Incident, 66. 

Fawcett, Miss, 333. 

Fawcett, Mrs., 332. 

Fecundity, of European Races com- 
pared, 217. 

Feeding Starving Scholars, 290. 

Federation of Mankind, xv. 

Fiction, 298. 

Fiji Island. 94. 

Fiscal Questions, 121-143, 

Fisher, Mark, 305. • 

Fitz Patrick, J. P., 298. 

Flaxman, 306. 

Food of British Empire, dangers of 
supply, 389, 390, 391, 392. 

Foreign Competition, 296. 

Forster, Arnold, 29, 43, 365, 372, 394, 
401. 

Forster, W. E., 28, 42, 288. 

Fortnightly Review, The 303. 

France, viii. 

France, Great Colonial development 
of, 66. 

France, Great war with (1793-1815), 
4, 13, 16, 63, 211, 229. 

Franco-German War (1870-1), 341. 

Free Trade, 125, 126, 131, 132, 136, 231, 
232 243 

Free Breakfast Table Cant, 130-1. 

Freeman, Professor, 78, 98, 100, 103, 
105, 107, 299. 

French ambitions in the Mediter- 
ranean, 71. 

French Art, 306. 

French-Canadians, 99. 

French descendants, viii. 

French designs in the Mediter- 
ranean, 71, 72. 

French Invasion of England threat- 
ened, 348. 

French Revolution and British 
Liberalism, 2. 

Frere, Sir Bartle, 34, 38. 



Froude Anthony, 23, 
Fry, Elizabeth, 333. 

G. 



199, 299. 



Gambia, 60. 

Gamblers, English-born, 9, 10. 

Gait, Sir Alexander, 4.3. 

Garnett, Dr. Richard, 301. 

Garrett, Edmund, 303. 

German Navy, 384. 

Germany and Britain, viii., ix., x,, 
384-5. 

Germany and Russia, x. 

Gentlemen Adventurers and Young- 
er Sons, 74. 

George, III., 50, 288. 

George, IV., 50, 346. 

Gibraltar (1704), 60. 

Giffen, Sir Robert, vii. 54, 105, 211, 
224, 226. 

Gilbert, Alfred, 306. 

Gilbert. Sir John, 305. 

Gladstone, W. E., xvii. 66, 439. 

Glenelg, Lord, 439. 

Gold Coast, 60. 

" Good old Times," 235-261. 

Gordon, General, 35, 204, 320. 

Graham, Col., 433. 

Graham, Mr. Anderson, 290. 

Granville, Earl, xvii. 37, 66, 283, 363. 

Grant (Explorer), 320. 

Grant, Principal, 189. 

Great Trek, The, xviii. 

Greek Colonies and British com- 
pared, 78, 98-9. 

Green, J. R., 299. 

Greville (Diarist), 38. 

Grey, Sir George, 29, 32-38, 89, 91, 92, 
320, 443. 

Grote, 299. 



H. 



Haggard, H. Rider, xix. 232, 246, 299, 

448. 
Ham, descendants of, xv. 
Hampden, Viscount, 43. 
Hardy, Thomas, 299- 
Harper's, 302. 

Hastings, Warren, 124, 209. 
Hazell, Walter, 81. 
Heaton, J. Henniker, 43, 118, 280, 281, 

282 
Heligoland (1807-1890). 61. 
Hicks-Beach, Sir Michael, 43. 
High Church Party, 319. 
Highways at beginning and end of 

Century compared, 263. 
Highwaymen, 265. 
Hill. Mise Octavia, 260. 
Hili; Sir Rowland, 118, 278. 
Hobson, Captain, 90. 
Hofmeyr Ian, 112. 
Home Militia Act, 368. 



476 



INDEX. 



Home Rule for Ireland, 222-223. 

Honduras (1783), 60. 

Hong Kong, 62. 

Hone and Lord Ellen borough, 295. 

Hooligan, The, 467. 

Hopkins, Castell, 33, 37, 39. 

Howe, Hon. Joseph, 26. 

How the Poor Live, 213. 

Hudson's Bay Rights, 192. 

Humanitarianism, 318. 

Hunter, General (New South Wales), 

239. 
Hutton, Coi. E. T. H., 360, 399, 401. 
Huxley, Professor, 260, 300. 

I. 

Ibsen, 308. 

Illegitimacy, 293. 

Illustrated London Neius, 302. 

Imperial Conference (1887), 46,110, 

111, 112. 
Imperial Conference (1897), 110, 112, 

115, 116, 117, 119. 
Imperial Conference, on Postage 

(1898), 280. 
Imperial Defence, 1 12, 338, 403-410. 
Imperial Federation, 100. 
Imperial Federation League (Found- 
ed July 29, 1884), xviii., 32, 40, 41, 

42, 44. 
Imperial Idea, the, xiii, 10, 21, chap. 

ii. 
Imperial Progress, Impulses to, 

chap. i. 
Imperial Unity, 102. 
Imperial Unity, Fathers of, 30. 
Imperial Reciprocity, 1 40-3, 146. 
Income Tax at Cape, 142. 
India, 8, 70, 123, 134, 306, 207, 277. 
Industries and Wealth of Nations, 

227. 
In Darkest England, 212, 320. 
Ionian Isles (ceded to Greece, 1864), 

61. 
Ireland, vii., 220, 231. 
Irish Land Bill (1881). 83. 
Irish Potato Famine (1847), 82. 
Irving, Henry, 307. 



Jamaica (1655), 60, 137, 184, 241. 
Jameson Raid, 38. 
Janssens. General, 419, 421, 422, 
Jeffries, Richard, 327. 
Jehangir, Emperor, 207. 
Jeune, Lady, 326. 
Jervois, Sir Wm., 398. 
Journalism, 298-300. 
Jubilee Celebration, 47. 



K. 

Kaffir Wars, 432-3, 435. 
Keats, 18, 299. 



Kelvin, Lord, 300. 

Kent and Sussex (birth of British 

Empire in), 102. 
Kerwin, Edwin H., 314. 
Keystone of the Empire, 97, 200, 

chap. xvi. 
Khalifa, The, 204. 
Khartoum, 204. 
Khedive, The, 204. 
King's College, London, 292. 
Kingsley. 299. 

Kipling, Rudyard, 299, 355. 
Kitchener, Lord, 204. 
Klondyke, and Yukon, 80. 
KnighVs Penny Journal, 303. 
Kotze, Chief Justice. 451. 
Kruger, President, 447-9, 450-1-2. 



Labilliere Francis de, xviii., 27, 30, 76, 

149. 
Labouchere. Henry, 183, 185. 
Labour Colonies in Holland and 

Germany, 214. 
Labuan Isles (1847), 62. 
Lagos (1861), 6,3. 
Laidlay, W. J., 305. 
Landor, 299. 

Language Question at Cape, 438. 
Lanyon, Sir Owen, 444. 
Langalibalele, 62. 
Lansdowne, Lord, 366. 
Laurie, General, 29, 402. 
Laurier, Sir Wilfrid, 189. 
Law, Administration of 316-317. 
Lawson, Cecil Gordon 305. 
Leeward Isles. 60. 
Leyds, Dr., 460. 
Libraries, Public, 398. 
Lincoln, 368. 
Literature, 297. 

Little Englanders, 53, 104, 186, 416. 
Livingstone, Dr., 320. 
Lloyd's Register, 366. 
Lome, M. Dupuy de, 382. 
London, 255-6. 
London University, 292. 
Lords, House of, and Radicals, 330. 
Loyalty to Throne re-created by 

Queen, 50-51. 
Loyalty of Colonists in Crisis of 

Empire, 120. 
Lubbock, Sir John (Lord Avebury), 

43. 
Lyne, Sir William, 1.53, 400. 
Lytton, Lord (Sir Edward Bulwer), 

37, 283. 



M. 



Macartney, Earl, 421, 425. 
Macaulay, 299. 
Macdonald, Sir John, 43. 
Mackenzie, Robert (History of xix., 
Cent,), 356. 



INDEX. 



m 



MacMahon, Marshal, xii. 

Macnab, Frances, 162-164. 

Macquarie, General (Governor N. 
S. Wales, 1810), 239. 

Macready, 307. 

Mahdi, The, 204. 

Malta (1800), GO. 

Manchester, Duke of, 43. 

Manchester School, 19, 24, 443. 

Manitoba. 193. 

Manners, Improvement in, 293. 

Manning:, Cardinal, 313. 

Maoris, The, 92, 199. 

Married Woman's Property Act, 320. 

Martin, Mrs. Biddulph (Victoria 
Woodhull),332. 

Martin, Montgomery, 54. 

Matin, The, 380. 

Maurice, Prof. 319. 

Mauritius (1810), 62, 96. 

McCarthy, Justin, xviii. 

Meath, Lord, xviii., 81, 260, 313, 378. 

Medical and Surgical Advance, 314. 

Meredith, George, 299. 

Merriman, the Hon. J. X., 43, 103. 

Militia, Canadian, 338, 409. 

Militia, Queensland and other Aus- 
tralasian colonies, 404. 

Millais, Sir John Everett, 305. 

Millionaires, Danger from Modern 
Plutocracy, 228. 

Millionaires, and South African War, 
454-5. 

Mills, Sir Charles, 42, 109. 

Milner, Sir Alfred, 34, 38, 418, 452, 
459. 

Milton's forecast, 21. 

Missionaries, Foreign, 320. 

Modern Outcast and Mediaeval Serf 
compared, 213. 

Moffat, Dr. Robert, 320. 

Montcalm, 60. 

More, Hannah, 333. 

Morning Post, 290, 322, 386, 390. 

Morocco, 416, 458. 

Morris, William, 299. 

Muir, Dr. (Superintendent Educa- 
tion at Cape), 288. 

Mulhall, Michael, 145, 147, 164, 165, 
188, 190, 194, 211. 226, 270, 357. 

Mulock, Mr. (Canadian Postmaster- 
General), 281. 



N. 



Napoleon I., 15. 

Napoleon IH.. 341. 

Napier, Sir Charles, 345. 

Natal 62 

Natal Mercunj, T/ie, 303. 

National Debt, 55, 56, 83, 216, 231. 

National G.allery, The, 307. 

National Schools, 247. 288. 

Navigation Laws, 266. 

Navy, Britisli, 372, 381-403, 410-413. 

Navy, French, 388. 



Navy, German, 885. 

Navy, Kussian, 388. 

Navy League, The, 386. 

New English Art Club, 305. 

New Guinea, 94, 96. 

New South Wales (1787), 60, 84, 85. 

New South Wales Lancers, 408. 

New Woman, 326. 

New Zealand, 24, 62, 90-93, 197, 288, 

315, 333, 402. 
New Zealand Land Company (1839), 

New Zealand's Population (Serious 

Social Question), 93, 170. 
Newlyn School, The, 305. 
News, The Daily, 302. 
Newspapers, 301-2. 
Nigeria, 55, 200, 201. 
Nightingale, Florence, 333. 
Nineteenth Century, The, 303. 
Norfolk, Duke of, 281. 
Norman, Sir Henry, 360, 361, 408. 
Normanby, Marquis of, 42. 
North, Lord, 21, 22. 
Northbrook, Lord, 404. 
North- West Territories, 193, 
Norwich School, The, 305. 
Nottingham School, The, 305. 
Nugent, Sir Charles, 29, 394. 



Ocean Mail Services, 269, 270. 
Oceana (published 1886), 29. 
Ogilvie, W. and Yukon, 193. 
Once A Week, 303. 
Osman Digna, 204. 
Owen. Col. John T., 405. 
Owen's College, Manchester, 293. 
Oxford Movement, 319. 



Paine, Tom, 468. 
Palmerston, Lord, xvii., 23, 24. 
Pall Mall Gazette, 386. 
Pan-Britannic Festivals, proposed, 

312. 
Paris, Treaty of (1815), 419. 
Parkes, Sir Harry, 29. 
Parkin, Dr. George R., xx., 29, 125, 

132, 140, 141, 148. 
Parliamentary Reform, 2-3. 
Party Politics, Curse of, 295, 296, 370, 

452-3. 
Parvenus and Society, 321. 
Pauperism, 212, 257. 
Peabody, George, 260. 
Peace Congress at the Hague, xi. 
Peace. Sir Walter, 109. 
Pearson, Charles, 40, 64. 
Peel, Sir Robert, 135. 
Peninsular War, 391. 
Penny Post, 118, 278-9. 
Penny Post, Imperial, 118, 280. 



478 



INDEX. 



Perim (1856), 63-3. 

Petvvorth (Sussex), 364. 

Pharazyn, C, 170. 

Pilgrim's, Way, 348. 

Pitt, The Younger, 325. 

Play fair, Lord (Sir Lyou Playfair), 

Plein-Air School, The. 305. 

PlimsoU, Samuel, 318. 

Polygamy, Monogamy, 326. 

Poor, Housing the, 813. 

Poor Law, 257. 

" Poor Whites " of South Africa, The, 
238. 

Population, Facts and Statistics of, 
54, 55, 219, 224. 

Portugal, 65. 

Potato Famine (Ireland, 1847), 220. 

Powell, Colonel Walker, 408. 

Powell, Sir George Badeu, 29. 

Prempeh (subdued 1896), 63. 

Pre-Raphaelite School, The, 305. 

Prices Compared, 244. 

Prince Consort, The, 31, 49, 51,313, 
341, 346, 349. 

Prince Henry of Portugal, 65. 

Privy Council and Colonial States- 
men, 110, 317. 

Problems of National Unity, 125. 

Protection, 137. 

Ptmch, 349. 

Q. 

Quarterly Revieiv, The, 302. 
Queensland, 85, 94, 401. 
Queen (see Victoria). 



Rand, Discovery of, 446. 

Railways, 180, 272-8. 

Rawson, Sir Rawson, xix., 43, 149, 

158, 159, 171. 
Readers, Increase of, 297. 
Redistribution Bill (1885), 5. 
Reform Bill (1832), 3, 5, 6. 
Reigate Hill, 348. 
Reitz, Mr., 456. 
Religion, 319, 468. 
Residuum Classes, 215, 467. 
Revenue, 175. 
Rhodes, Cecil, 91, 1.53, 320. 
Rhodesia, 74, 97. 
Rifle, as defensive weapon, 372. 
Roads, 262. 

Roberts, Lord, 355, 374, 418. 
Robinson. Sir John, 32, 54, 55, 150, 

179, 303. 
Rogers, Professor Thorold, 213. 
Roman Catholics, Emancipation of, 

Rose'bery, Lord, 368, 370, 380. 
Rossetti, Dante Gabriel, 299. 
Royal Academy, The, 304-307. 



Royal Academy: Its Uses and 

Abuses, 305. 
Royal Colonial Institute (founded 

1868), 26, 40, 95, 360, 399, 405, 408. 
Royal Marines, 412. 
Royal Niger Company, 58, 320. 
Royal United Service Institution, 

395. 
Row ton. Lord, 260. 
Rudgwick, Sussex, 244. 
Rural Exodus, 138, 165-6, 232. 
Ruskin, John, 275, 299, 470. 
Russell, Lord John (Earl Russell), 

348. 
Russia and Britain, x., xi. 
Russian designs on India, 69. 
Rye, Miss, 81. 



Salvation Army, The, 214, 819, 820, 

468. 
Salisbjiry, Lord, 23, 295, 313, 370, 371, 

417, 418, 452. 
Samuel, Sir Saul, 42. 
Sand River Convention (1852), xviil., 

443. 
Sanitation, 224, 313-315, 464. 
Sassoon, Sir Edward, 285. 
Saturday Revieiv, The, 303. 
Schreiner, W. P., 407, 457. 
School Board, 290-1. 
Schools, Public, 289. 
Scott, Clement, 308. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 299. 
Seamen, 271. 
Secocoeni, 444. 
Seelev, Professor, xix., 21, 29, 43, 56, 

121. 
Sex Problem, 327. 
Shaftesbury, Lord, 313. 
Sharp, William, 303. 
Shaw, Mr., Canadian correspondent 

and British soldier, 354. 
Shelley and Freedom, 4, 18, 249, 299. 
Shibboleths, Blind Adherence to, 

126, 430. 
Shuttleworth, Sir James, 288, 293. 
Sims, George R., 212, 260. 
Sierra Leone (1795), 60. 
Slave Trade, 426. 
Slagter Nek Affair, 428, 431, 438. 
Smallpox and Vaccination, 314. 
Smart Set : Its baneful influence, 

335, 336, 467. 
Smith, Adam, 25. 
Smith, Professor Goldwin, 103. 
Smith, W. H., 28, 42. 
Smuts, Mr., 458. 
Social Distinctions, 321. 
" Social Evil," The, 334. 
Social Purity, 327. 
Somerset, Lord Charles, 5, 434, 438. 
Somerville, Mrs., 333. 
Southern Australia, 88, 91. 



INDEX. 



479 



Southern Australia Company (1834), 

88. 
South African Conference (1876), 110. 
South Kensington Museum, 307. 
Spectator, The, 303. 
Speke (explorer), 320. 
Spencer, Herbert, 300. 
Sprig?:, Sir Gordo 113. 
Spitalfields Weavers, 216. 
St. Helena (1651), 60. 
Stanhope, Edward, 39, 46, 110. 
Stanley, Dean, 319. 
Steam, Influence of, 264-5-6. 
Steamships, 266-9. 
Sterilisation of the unfit, 254. 
Steyn, President, 453. 
Stout, Hon. R., 197. 
Straits Settlements (1785), 60. 
Strikes, 296. 

Submarine Cables, 282, 285. 
Subsidised Steamships, 267. 
Sugar and Bounties, 128-131. 
Suez Canal Shares, 203. 
Sunday Schools, 288. 
Sydney, 239. 



T. 



"Taal" The Dutch, 441. 
Tainton, Clifton, 373, 375, 376, 377. 
Taubman-Goldie, Sir George, 201, 

320. 
Tasmania (1803), 60, 86, 93. 
Taxation, 4, 230-1. 
Technical Education, 292. 
Temple, Sir Richard. 205. 
Tennant, Sir David, 109. 
Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 43, 299. 
Thackeray, W. M., 299. 
Thanksgiving Day (1872), 48. 
Theal, Prof., 236, 237, 238, 418. 
Times, The, 301, 302, 322, 390. 
Tolls, 71. 

Trafalgar (1805), 338, 395, 419. 
Trade, 54, 144, 174, 233. 
Trade Routes, 413. 
Trade Unions, 248, 296. 
Trans-African Railway, 463. 
Transvaal Revolt, vii., 353, 361, 362, 

363, 364, 374-5, 413, 415, and Chap. 

xvi. 
Travel, Foreign, its influence, 310 
Travelling, 465. 
Trinidad (1797), 60. 
Tripoli, 71. 

TroUope, Anthony, 199. 
Trust Funds and Colonial Stock, 119. 
Tunis, 71. 
Tupper, Sir Charles, 29, 42, 139, 140, 

141, 402. 
Turner. J. M. W., 805. 
Turks Tslfts. 00. 
Turnpikes, 262. 
Tyndall, Professor, 300, 



U. 

Uganda, 58. 

Uitlanders, 449, 461. 

Unfit, The, 218. 

United States of America, 71, 77, 78, 

81, 103, 190. 191, 192, 195, 359. 
Universities, 292. 
Utrecht, Treaty of (1713), 59. 



Venezuela Award, xii. 

Victoria (1789), 60, 84. 

Victoria, Her Majesty, Queen, 30, 31, 
32, 39, 40, 50, 51, 52, 341, 349, 350. 

Vienna, Treaty of (1815), 428. 

Vincent, Sir Howard, 29, 143. 

Virile Races build for their descend- 
ants, 235 

Vivisection, 319. 

Vogel, Sir Julius, 29. 

Volunteer Movement, 349, 350, 366, 
406, 407, 408. 

Voortrekkers, The, 319. 



W. 



Wakefield, Edward Gibbon, 6, 26, 

27, 88, 92. 
Wales. Prince of, 45, 48, 313, 394. 
Wallace, Hedger, 435. 
Wai-d, Humphrey, xviii., 192, 343. 
Warnham, Sussex, 249. 
War Office— A fossilised survival, 

372, 411. 
Warren, Sir Charles, 63. 
Washington, 103. 
Water-colour Art and its Masters, 

306. 
Water-supply, 313. 
Waterloo (1815), .340. 
Watts, G. F., 305. 
Wealden Painters, The, 305. 
Wealth, Statistics of, 216, 217, 226, 229, 

323 
Wellington, Duke of, 17, 340, 343, 346. 

347, 348, 391. 
Weutworth, W. C, 26. 
West Africa, 96. 
West Australia, 85, 86, 87, 88. 
West Indies, 127, 128, 241. 
West Sussex Gazette ("Old Guard" 

of Sovith-East England on " Good 

old Times "), 243, 253. 
Westgarth, William, 27. 
Westminster Review, The, 302. 
Whistler, J. McNeil, 305. 
White, Arnold, 394. 
White, Sir Wm. (Chief -Constructor 

to R. Navv), 271. 
Whiteing, Richard, 260. 
Wilkinson, Spencer, 365, 366, 367, 394. 
William III., 229. 
William IV., 50. 
Wilson, H. W., 394, 



/ ^7 



480+xxx=510 INDEX. 



Windward Islands (1605), 59. Y. 

Wolfe, 59. 

Wolseley, Viscount, 840, 342-3, 347, Youn?:, Sir Frederick, xviii., 27, 8i 

350, 375, 444. Young, Sir George, 421. 

Woman, Position of (in Society, 

Politics, Professions, etc.}, 317, Z. 

325-337. 
Wordsworth, 299. ZoUverein, An Imperial, 141, 171. 

Wyndham, George, 352, 366, 367. Zululand, 58. 



iS^.^'^Y OF CONGRESS . 

iiinnoiil*! 

0020 715 831 8 



^,V. \, 



P 






